Code Blue
by heroyalshyness
Summary: When Avery Plafaire agreed to work for Shield all those years ago it was so she wouldn't go to jail. Now, everything has changed. This time Nick is giving her the choice to become a full time agent or start a new life. After choosing the latter a new threat pops up endangering all she cares for and she can't leave yet. Avery should've known getting out wasn't going to be that easy.
1. Prologue

**December 2006**

"So you're the infamous Cipher who managed to hack into Shield's database," the man with the eye patch and long black coat said - Avery immediately recognized who was standing on the doorstep.

"That's an interesting code name but then again if the shoe fits…" she replied. "I know who you both are of course, Director, Professor," Avery continued, nodding to them respectively, hiding her surprise with a self satisfied smirk.

Now, Avery was normally good at reading people but she got nothing from the Director other than mistrust and maybe a hint of respect if she was reading him right. But she wasn't surprised with him being a super spy and all.

"Yes, well you have been quite a thorn in the side for Shield, trying to figure who you are, and normally you would be on your way to prison right now. But, after the things our best hacker said and what Professor Xavier has told me, we think you could be an asset as well. So I'm willing to make a deal for your freedom," Fury said before forcing his way past her and into her dingy apartment. The Professor at least bothered to give her an apologetic look as he wheeled in behind the Director.

"And what would that be?" Avery asked, making the suspicion she felt clear in her voice as she closed the door behind them.

Although no matter what he offered, Avery wasn't likely to turn it down and Fury probably knew that too. Avery was only nineteen and she really hadn't planned on spending most of her adult life in jail, a fact that the Director was no doubt aware of. Including the fact that she had hacked into the Pentagon, the FBI, as well as the MI6 – just to see if she could – and could be charged as a legal adult now, things weren't looking to good for her. Avery was likely to get sentenced to twenty years in prison along with a $500,000 fine at the least.

"Well seeing as you're a mutant with the powers to…" the Director began before looking to the Professor, who had been completely silent this whole time, to explain what exactly Avery could do.

At this time Avery couldn't stop her jaw from dropping even if she wanted to. There was no way Fury could know about her mutant powers when she had never breathed a word about them to anyone. But somehow and some way, he did.

"She is Cybernetic – a phrase we invented because of her, for I have honestly never seen anything quite like this before. Avery here has the ability to… extract information from any electronic device in her line of sight with her mind. And since her brain is physically different than any normal human's, super powered humans included, any attempt to penetrate her mind and affect it in anyway is futile. It just simply won't work," Professor Xavier said.

'That must have been why Professor Xavier couldn't find me but that doesn't explain how he knows my name', Avery thought to herself. Any evidence of herself and her existence she made sure to delete years ago, when Avery ran away from the orphanage where she grew up. Although Avery had never tried to hack into electronic devices mentally before, she would have to test that later. She also wondered how the Professor figured out she could do that when Avery hadn't even known herself.

"Her mind also interprets computer code the same way it does English, so she can hack into virtually anything that requires coding as long as she's physically using a computer or something of the like. The gist of it is that Avery's mind works more like a computer than a human brain," he concluded.

While the Fury gave her a considering look at the Professor's explanation Avery froze. "If you can't read my mind then how do you know all that?" she asked, her expression automatically closing off. Avery refused to let them see the fear on her face.

"You two can chat all you want later but right now it's time for you to choose. Either you can go to jail for twenty years or you can work for Shield five years to make up for your crimes. Oh and don't even think about trying to find our hacker or illegally hack into anything again. You'll be gone faster than you can say Hack Completed," the Director said, cutting the Professor off before he had time to answer Avery's question.

Avery didn't even bother telling him that even if she hacked into Shield again he would never know because while that was still true Shield's mysterious hacker was an unknown and Avery hated things she did know.

"But Director Fury and I agreed that you would need time to learn more about developing your powers and how to control them so you will also be spending a year or two attending the institute beforehand. I'm assuming you know what that is," the Professor added.

"We also agreed that I would be making weekly visits to ensure you get at least the basic training that all of our agents receive and to make sure you aren't getting into any trouble so I would recommend being on your best behavior."

"I'm nineteen not five. I have an IQ higher than most geniuses, so why don't you stop treating me like a child," Avery snapped. The Director's condescending tone was starting to get on Avery's last nerve. "But, yes, I agree to your terms," she added. Avery didn't even try to hide her grin at the Director's shocked expression at her response. She was sure that very few people dared to speak out against him let alone a nineteen year old girl.

"Good, then pack your bags, you'll be leaving with Professor Xavier," the Director said gruffly before stalking out of her apartment with a dramatic swish of his long black coat.


	2. Pilot (Part 1)

**7 years later...**

"Look, when I went to recruit you I honestly didn't know what to expect…Well I definitely didn't expect to see a kid," Fury began as soon as Avery entered his office.

He had called her down ten minutes ago and she wondered what it was all about.

"I was nineteen years old," Avery replied dryly.

"But what I did know was that you could either be a formidable opponent or a valuable asset," Fury continued, ignoring Avery's remark.

"Is there point to this?"

"Sit down, shut up, and listen, okay?" Fury snapped but Avery could see his lips twitch in amusement. She sat down in the chair in front of him even more curious than before.

"Since then I have watched you grow into an amazing and highly skilled young woman. But now that your five year sentence is over it's time for you to choose to stay or go. You have to decide whether you want to continue as a Shield agent and do some good, hidden in the shadows, or if you want to start new and away from all of this. You already know what I think—that's why I decided to personally train you myself—but now it's your turn to control your life. You can either stay here and be a full-time agent or you can begin another life as if this one never existed. Either way I just want the best for you. I'll expect you to report to my office at the end of the day with your decision," Nick said and reached out to squeeze her shoulder gently, which would be a heartfelt hug in anyone else's book, before then returning to his work.

"Yeah of course," Avery replied softly and left his office in a daze.

Although she still didn't have it all together, Avery walked like someone with a purpose and found her feet leading her to the training room. As Avery pulled knives out of her belt, words started flashing through her mind - like "five years", "sentence is over", and "stay or go". At the same time a dagger flew from her fingers and missed the target, falling to the floor with a clatter. Since she began throwing knives all those years ago it had become as natural as breathing to her. Even when she threw a knife for the first time all those years ago she hadn't completely missed the target.

But today was the day she began working for Shield five years ago – trust Nick to remember the exact day he decided to take what used to be a permanent thorn in his side under his wing. Nick probably cursed the day every year. After three years of searching for her parents by hacking into anything she could, which was everything, Avery had accidentally hacked into Shield's database. Suddenly Avery was on their radar. She was cornered by Professor Xavier and the one and only Nick Fury, Director of Shield, a week or two later. She never found the genius who cracked her codes and found her location but that was because Avery promised Nick she wouldn't go digging.

Now Avery's days at Shield were at an end and she wasn't sure where to go or what she was going to do next. Avery never belonged at Shield and the fact that the other agents considered her a freak and a liability due to her powers didn't help much. Despite the fact that her best friends still lived at the Institute she hadn't exactly felt as if she belonged there either. In her whole life Avery never belonged anywhere and it was time things changed.

Avery walked over to retrieve her knife and slid it back into the sheath around her waist. After her pathetic excuse for a throw she concluded that she didn't have enough focus for target practice. This time Avery let her feet guide her back to her room as she took apart the situation in her mind. Frustration began building inside her so Avery decided to take a small trip to visit her friends in the institute. They had always been there to give her advice on the few problems she couldn't solve which were the ones that didn't involve logic or coding.

Once Avery entered her room she moved her blue rug to the side and opened the trapdoor that was underneath. She made her way down the stairs, making sure to move the rug back in place and pull the hatch closed behind her. The secret passage she found not long after she started at Shield led to an opening at the back of the compound. She parked her bike there so she could leave without anyone noticing.

The motorcycle was a birthday present from Nick. Avery hadn't figured out how he knew what day it was due to the fact that Avery erased her identity after she had ran away from the orphanage, but she had an idea. Nick had made a point to let her know that it was only because it was a pain in the ass for him to drive Avery from the Institute to Shield Headquarters and back again on training days. But by that time Avery had learned how look past Nick's masks.

Although he said it had nothing to do with sentiment, the leather jacket and boots he gave her for her next birthday - when Avery mentioned in passing that she had always wanted some - proved otherwise. Still she let Nick believe that he had her convinced. Avery's small smile at the thought of visiting her friends turned into a grin at the feeling of freedom and the wind blowing through her hair as well as the memory of that treasured moment.

Finally Avery began to slow down as she pulled her motorcycle into the parking lot in front of the X-Mansion. As she strolled through the halls, enjoying the feeling of being back at the Institute Avery caught sight of Mason first. The halls were empty at the moment so most of the kids had to be in class. She was walking towards one of the common rooms when she saw Mason walking with a young kid trailing behind him. Seeing his face always cheered her up.

"This is Janelle. She is the institute's resident hairdresser around here. Boy or girl, long or short, curly or straight, she is able to do anyone's hair," Mason told the kid with a proud grin on his face. As he said this Janelle was using her powers to literally blow another student's hair dry and that was exactly why they called her Whirlwind. She finally noticed Mason when she finished drying the kid's hair a few moments later.

"Oh, hey love. New student?" Janelle asked, smiling at him sweetly.

"Yeah, just showing her around," Mason replied awkwardly and there was a slight tinge of pink spreading over his cheeks. "Well uh we should get back to the tour."

Janelle nodded and turned around to continue working on the guys hair with a disappointed expression on her face as the two continued down the hall. Avery had yet to make her appearance known.

"You two together?" the new student teased and Avery snickered under her breath as the blush on Mason's face became more prominent. His fair skin wasn't doing him any favors either.

"No we're just friends, she calls everyone that — not like that's any of your business Bree," Mason answered gruffly.

"You know if you did your little," Avery began, putting her fingers to her temple and wiggling while trying to mime Mason's thinking face, "you would know how she really feels about you."

Mason jumped and turned around to glare at her but Avery just smiled innocently even though she knew Mason wouldn't buy her act.

"Ooo you're a telepath?" Bree asked with excitement.

"No I'm not. You know I hate when you sneak up on me like that. Why are you here? You usually call first," Mason said, directing the last part at Avery with a raised eyebrow, but there was a small smile on his face too.

"I'm here to take you to a surprise lunch along with Jackie, Felix, and Stella if I can manage to find them," Avery said with a casual shrug.

Her fingers began drumming against her thighs as if she was typing on a keyboard — a nervous habit Nick never managed to drill out of her. In her hurry she had forgotten to call ahead of time but she hoped Mason wouldn't inquire further. At the same time she knew he wouldn't have to since he could see past her masks ever better than Nick which was impressive as Mason's powers didn't work on her.

"Oh, well I still have to finish showing Bree around but—"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll figure out where everything is by myself," Bree cut in, giving Mason a mischievous grin and slipping away before he could get a word in.

"This new one seems like she's going to be a handful," Avery said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I'll probably have to keep an especially close eye on her. But it looks like I'm free to go, although Stella is held up at the moment. There have been more and more students ending up in the infirmary lately and she's been working nonstop all day. I told her to take it slow and let Hank help out. You know how healing people left and right takes a toll on her. But she snapped at me to let her do her job," Mason said, with a worried look.

Stella, one of her other best friends, had the ability to heal almost all wounds just by touching a person, as long as their injuries weren't fatal. Although, it did take quite a bit of energy out of her the more people she healed. Her previous training as a nurse helped when she chose to use it but she preferred to use her powers. It healed people faster and she could take her patients pain away as well.

"Why don't we check up on her when we get back and if she still refuses to take a break we'll sic Felix on her. She can't say no to his puppy dog eyes, no one can. Where is he by the way?" Avery said.

"Sounds like a plan. Oh, he and Jackie are in the training room. But by my estimate it has probably turned from training into a snowball fight by now," Mason answered, chuckling.

"Why don't we go see and hopefully they're not soaking wet already. I'm hungry and I will not be entering the restaurant with them dripping everywhere," Avery said as they made their way to the training room.

Once they entered the training room Avery heard a bout of laughter before a snowball was suddenly flying at her. Avery, quick as lightning, pulled a knife out of her belt and sliced it in half before it could hit her.

"Hey guys," Mason said behind her while Avery just raised her eyebrow at them.

"He started it!" "She started it!" Felix and Jackie said simultaneously.

"I think I'm more inclined to believe the one that doesn't have the power to control ice and snow," Avery said, giving Jackie a dirty look.

The whole time she was trying not to laugh because like she predicted they were soaked. Sometimes she couldn't believe that her best friends were actually twenty-four and twenty-six respectively.

"I made the snow but Felix threw the first snowball," Jackie said, putting her hand to her chest with, doing her best to look offended.

When Avery turned to Felix he just gave her a guilty shrug, before shaking his head of curly brown hair like a dog and getting water everywhere.

"Well I was going to treat you guys to lunch on me but you're obviously busy right now...and absolutely drenched," Avery said with a chuckle, making sure to take a step back before he could get her wet too.

"Oh don't even try that," Jackie said with a grin and grabbed Felix's hand to pull him out of the room.

Avery trailed behind them and as Mason closed the door behind them the snow disappeared and the room turned back to normal. In all her years at the school Avery had yet to discover how the room worked but then again she didn't make much of an effort, for then the magic of it would be ruined.

"So, Hai Li?" Felix asked, pulling Avery out of her thoughts as she turned to look back at him.

"Hai Li," Avery said, her smile strained. Avery would miss this place.

Hai Li was their favorite chinese restaurant and they always ate there whenever Avery came to visit.

"So, Stella?" Avery asked, jogging to catch up and fall in step with her friends.

"Yeah well you know Doc, she can never stop helping people and she can't stand anyone in her work space. Although her bedside manner still leaves something to be desired." Jackie said with a grin.

"I still remember the first time I returned from training with Nick and tried to act like I was fine but Stella just said 'Sit down, shut up, and let me heal you.'" Avery added, causing them all to burst into laughter.

"Sometimes I still can't believe you survived two years of training with the Nick Fury," Felix said with a dramatic shudder.

"And the fact that he lets you get away with calling him Nick," Jackie chimed in.

Avery just smiled and they continued walking to the front of the school in a comfortable silence until they finally reached the entrance.

"Oh wait I almost forgot. You two are still soaking! Go get Janelle to dry you off and we'll meet you at Felix's car okay?" Avery said, grinning when the two of them groaned.

"Here take care of my baby alright," Felix said before tossing her his car keys.

They pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant fifteen minutes later, both Jackie and Felix finally dry.

After they had all sat down at the one of the tables outside with an umbrella and ordered their meals Avery knew she couldn't put it off any longer. She took a deep breath, drumming her fingers on the table this time.

"You know about the deal I made with Nick?" Avery asked and they all nodded.

She had time to finally come to a decision and now all that was left was to tell her best friends. Fury probably already knew before she did, what Avery was going to choose. Jackie and Felix were looking at her with confusion on their faces but Avery knew Mason had figured it out already. He had always known her best, which included knowing her nervous tics.

"Well it turns out that the five years are finally over," she continued.

"That's awesome!" Felix exclaimed. "It is, isn't it?"

"So what are you going to do next?" Jackie asked. "You know you're always welcome at the institute right?"

"You already chose haven't you? That's why we're all here. But you think we aren't going to like what you have to say," Mason said, correct as always.

This time Felix and Jackie looked nervous and worried instead.

"I can either stay at Shield, stay at the school, or I can leave. I could leave this all behind and make myself a new identity. I already did it once. I can be a different person. I'll have the chance to live a normal life, something I never dared to dream of until Nick mentioned it," Avery said carefully.

"But Avery you're not normal. None of us are normal. And what about your parents? Are you just going to give up on them?" Felix said fiercely.

Avery always knew there was a lot more behind Felix's happy-go-lucky persona that he wore every day but she never saw him so passionate before and that made her feel even worse. She had no doubt that it had something to do with his own parents.

Avery had never known her parents. They left her on the steps of a catholic orphanage run by nuns when she was a year old and it was where she grew up. All Avery had to remember them by was a letter they wrote to her and a necklace with an electric blue X — the same color as the vertical marks on her face. She later discovered that the charm was a symbol for the X-Men. After coming across the letter on accident Avery had been searching for them ever since. But if they hadn't had her she would've thought they didn't even exist.

"They were the ones that abandoned me! I've been labeled a freak my whole life and all I ever wanted was to be normal, to fit in just once. I could even work as a tech support girl or something," she said playfully with a forced smile.

It soon turned genuine at the sound of Jackie's snort. Avery knew it wasn't going to be easy starting over again, but it was something she felt she had to do.

"Maybe it's time for me to let go and live my life. I've been living in the past for too long," Avery added.

"That would be an incredible waste of your talents but if this is what you really want to do…" Jackie trailed off with a sad smile.

"You'll visit though, right?" Felix asked hesitantly, his anger having run out.

When Avery started living at the institute she would have never believed that she would make any friends - let alone best friends with the amazing people sitting around her, yet here she was.

"Of course I'll visit and you guys will have to come visit me too," Avery said, giving Felix a soft smile before turning to Mason who had been quite the whole time.

"As long as you're happy that's all that matters to—" Mason began before freezing in the middle of his sentence. "White middle aged woman with dark hair and a gun at your six o'clock," he whispered quickly. "Her target is a heavy balding man with blonde hair a few tables over," Mason continued, his face a blank mask and his voice calm and collected as if he were in some kind of trance.

"Finally, you will pay for what you did to my wife!" they heard a woman shout seconds later.

Avery, Jackie, and Felix stood immediately, acting together as the woman aimed the gun at her target. Jackie turned to freeze the barrel of the gun before the woman could shoot then acting on instinct Avery smoothly pulled one of her knives from her boot and threw it at the gun knocking it from the woman's hands. Mason turned to lock eyes on the woman and Avery could already see her calming down. Finally Felix sent a small jolt of electricity through her body, just enough to knock her out.

"You, call the cops," Mason said sharply, pointing to the waiter who scrambled to pull his phone out.

"Nice call," Avery leaned down to whisper in Mason's ear.

No matter how many times she's seen him use his powers it would never stop impressing her. Unlike a telepath Mason could feel the emotions coming from a person and sometimes saw the images associated with them if they're strong enough. When he looked someone in the eye he could alter those emotions at will. She knew Mason didn't like to use his powers to manipulate people's feelings but he would when it was necessary.

"I felt so much anger...so much hate. I felt like it was burning me up inside," Mason gasped, like Avery's voice had pulled him from his trance and he could finally breath again.

"Hey man are you alright?" Felix asked gently and reached out to touch Mason's arm, causing him to flinch.

"Yeah, fine," Mason snapped defensively and it was obvious that he wasn't. "But I think the old man must've actually done something. That woman's hate was too strong to be a lie. I don't think we can trust—" Mason continued but paused when he saw the man get up and approach them.

"I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. I was hoping to serve you a nice dinner in an attempt to express my gratitude. It's the least I can do."

But before Avery could open her mouth to decline the offer Jackie cut in first.

"Of course! We would be delighted to, Mister…"

"Worthington. But you all can call me Geoffrey." the man replied with a smile like a snake's.

"Well thank you Geoffrey," Jackie said with a smile.

That's when Avery knew something was wrong. None of them would ever doubt Mason's intuition which was always accurate when it came to people. Avery could tell the old man was influencing them somehow. Due to the fact that her brain was wired more like a computer than a normal human's no powers relating to the mind could affect her. But Avery knew it was best to play along, lulling the man into a false sense of security.

"I'm Felix and this is Mason, Jackie, and Avery," Felix added, pointing to them all in turn.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all but I should be going right now. Here I'll write down my address," the man said, pulling a piece of paper and pen out of nowhere.

As the old man walked away looking like the cat who got the cream the waiter finally arrived with their food.

"It's on the house. That was amazing what you four did and all of us appreciate that there are heroes like you out there in the world watching over us," he said while placing their plate down on the table.

As Avery looked around she could see people at the neighboring tables nodding at what the water said and began clapping. Avery had been called many things throughout her life but never once had someone called her a hero. She never thought she would actually feel like one either.

It was late when the four of them finally left the restaurant. They were too busy catching up and enjoying each other's company. They were all so busy with their own lives that they didn't manage to get together as a group often. Avery didn't get much time to herself ever since she started working for Shield. While Stella was working hard to heal students Mason was working with Professor X to recruit new ones and Jackie and Felix stepped in once in awhile to help train them. But when they did get to spend time together Avery always cherished it. Eventually they all piled into Felix's car and as soon as they arrived back at the school Jackie and Felix went to get ready, obviously still under the old man's thrall.

"I know there is something wrong with that man but I don't know what to do while he has control over them," Mason said, running his hands through his dark spiky hair in frustration.

"We know that the man has control over Jackie and Felix and believes that he has control over me as well so if I don't show up he'll get suspicious. Plus we don't know how they'll react if we try to stop them from going in the first place.

"So, the most logical option is that we will go to dinner and you'll be there to back us up in case anything goes wrong. You remember the moves I taught you, right? I'll have my knives on me too so you might not even need to step in at all," Avery said.

"What about Stella? You know how she gets when she thinks one of us may be in trouble," Mason said with a fond smile.

"You can update her on the situation but I don't want to make her think she has do anything she doesn't want to do. She made it clear long ago that she wanted to leave that part of her life behind," Avery said.

"You know she would do anything for us."

"Yes and that's what I'm worried about but I better get changed now. Meet me at my room in an hour and we can go over the plan one last time. Don't worry I'm sure everything is going to be fine."

"I hope you're right," Mason replied. "Wait shouldn't we tell the Professor?"

"Yeah I can't believe I forgot," Avery said awkwardly.

Her mind was too busy running through all the possible scenarios and how to react to think of the obvious choice that was in front of her the whole time.

"But we don't know exactly how serious this situation is so don't worry him too much. Just make sure he is aware. We don't want the man to have any idea that we're connected to Professor Xavier. Oh and ask him not to tell Nick.

"They get together for lunch once in awhile to share gossip about me. They're like a couple of old ladies and I still can't believe they think I don't know. Anyways I don't want risk Nick storming in and shooting the guy before we know if he's actually a danger or not."

"Okay, I'll go talk to him right now," Mason replied, chuckling at her last comment, and went to find the Professor.

It was no exaggeration. Mason knew Director Fury would do it if he believed Avery was in danger.

Like Avery said she went to her room and began to get ready. It was hers ever since she started at the school and was there whenever she wanted to return. Thankfully she kept a variety of clothes there just in case.

"You look...wow," Mason said when he entered her door an hour later on the dot while Avery was putting the finishing touches on her makeup.

Avery didn't dress up often so she was going to take the opportunity that was handed to her. She decided to go more feminine and was wearing a gorgeous royal blue silk dress with a slit down the side. She tucked necklace her parents gave her under the neckline of her dress.

"I know it's a bit over kill, but I thought I might be catching a possible criminal so why not go all out," Avery said when she saw Mason run his eyes up and down her form a second time.

"Well I uh talked to Stella and she said that there is no way she's not going to be there as back up. She's also kind of pissed at you that you thought she wouldn't have your back but that's between you two," Mason said, grinning.

"What I didn't say anything like — You know what whatever I'll talk to her later," Avery said giving him the stink eye. "So Jackie, Felix, and I are going to take his car to the address given. I've looked it up and it is a mansion almost as big as this one which is even more suspicious. I also have a tracker in Felix's car so—"

"Wait you put a tracker in his car?!"

"Well yeah in case I need to know where he is and if he's in trouble or something," Avery said with a shrug. She might've been a tad overprotective about her friends.

"We are going to talk about this later but continue."

"So you and Stella can wait thirty minutes and then use the tracker to follow the car. I'll send you code red incase anything goes wrong. Am I missing anything?"

"No, but I still can't believe you put a tracker in Felix's car,"

"Okay good," Avery said ignoring Mason's remark.

"Oh and you might want to do something about those," Mason said gesturing to the two electric blue markings running down either side of her face.

"I can't believe I forgot!" Avery said.

What happened this morning seemed like it kept throwing her off. She turned to the mirror and reapplied concealer over the blue lines on her face that had run off when she was in the shower. It was something she had grown used to after the orphanage to make her look like everyone else when she went out in public. It took her a while to find concealer that matched her dark skin tone so she was extremely relieved when she didn't have to wear a hoodie and glasses when she went out and hope that no one looked too closely.

"Stay safe and be careful, alright?" Mason said when she had finally finished.

Mason's expression had hardened and Avery could see the fear in his eyes. She had never seen him that scared since she met him and that worried her. Avery would make sure to keep an even closer eye on her friends and slid another knife into the thigh holsters hidden underneath her dress.

"I always am," Avery replied with a smirk, doing her best to hide her nerves.

"Bullshit," Mason replied with a chuckle but just gave Avery a soft smile before exiting her room.

After the door close behind him Avery let out a loud exhale, releasing the breath she had been holding. She hated putting Mason and Stella in this position but she didn't know what else she could do. Finally ready Avery exited her room and met her two friends outside. Thankfully they didn't question why Mason wasn't joining them.

They took Felix's car again and it didn't take them long to reach the old man's house which turned out to be a large mansion. There wasn't another house for miles. This only made her more uneasy and wary of what they may be walking into. They drove up the long drive way and as soon as they rung the doorbell the old man was welcoming them in eagerly with a smile.

She wasn't usually good with recognizing social cues but even Avery could tell that there was something off about his expression. He may have been fooling her friends somehow but he wasn't fooling her; there was something seriously wrong with the man. Avery didn't know what it was yet but based on past experiences and Nick's training there was no missing it.

As the man lead them to the table, which was already filled with food, Avery's mind was making a note of all the exits and coming up with as many escape plans as she could think of. Based on the data she collected Avery calculated that they had an eighty-eight percent chance of succeeding.

By the time she had finished her calculations they had already been seated. Felix was already taking a bite of his dinner and Jackie a sip of water while sending Avery not so subtle hints to be polite and eat the meal the man had prepared. Avery wasn't too worried since she snuck them an antidote earlier that would counteract almost all poisons.

Still Avery hated how many unknown variables there were and she couldn't account for all of them. So she took a bite of her food doing her best to act as casual as possible to not break the illusion for the man that she was still under his thrall.

But as dinner turned to dessert and the man cleared all the plates Avery began to doubt her earlier assessment. If he was planning something wouldn't he have done it by now and where were Stella and Mason? Before they left Mason agreed that he would let her know when they arrived and they should've been there by now. She was soon pulled out of her thoughts when the man pushed his chair back and stood up.

"Well that was fun ladies and gentleman. I always say that people deserve one last good meal before they die," the man said with a disturbing smile.


	3. Pilot (Part 2)

"Ah, ah, ah," The man said as Avery began to reach for the knife strapped to her thigh.

There was no way he could've seen that she thought incredulously. Nick taught her the art of subtlety and deception a long time ago and the first thing she learned was how to hide weapons on her person and retrieve them without anyone noticing. Avery knew something like this was going to happen and she had learned a long time ago to always trust her intuition and follow her instincts.

Luckily Felix and Jackie were starting to come out of their daze. She didn't know how the man thought he would be able to fight all three of them. Avery had long ago taught them the basics of what Nick taught her so she knew that her friends would be able to defend themselves.

"Somehow I just knew that it didn't work on you," the old man said, staring at her like a piece of meat and Avery shuddered with revulsion.

"What do you want?" Avery snapped trying to keep her cool.

"You'll know soon enough," he said cryptically.

Avery reviewed her back up plans trying to figure out which would work best but Jackie and Felix were still looking out of it as they stood up. In Avery's plans she had accounted for Stella and Mason backing her up but they weren't there right now and there was no way Avery would leave Felix and Jackie behind. She would just have to do her best to stall and hope that Mason and Stella got there in time.

While keeping an eye on the old man Avery reached out with her mind, searching for the electromagnetic energy all electronic devices emitted. Professor Xavier had taught her how to do this when she was at the institute. Avery still hadn't figured out how he knew she was able to do it before she did though.

Once she locked onto the waves coming specifically from her phone Avery delved her mind into the data and coding it contained. As the data was translated information started to run through her head in binary code and she manipulated the code to construct a message to send out to Mason.

This was something Avery had learned to do when she was at the Institute. As she worked the marks on her face began to glow bright blue, a reaction to Avery using her powers on a mental level. It almost gave her a heart attack when she found out the first time. It didn't happen when she was using something as a gateway like a computer or a cellphone to manipulate computer code, but when she made a mental connection with the energy that came from all electronics her face lit up. They never really figured out why.

The message said "Code Red". Felix, Stella, Jackie, and Mason were messing around one day and created a color code system, each color meaning something different and Code Red meant danger. They hadn't really used any of the colors since they had first created it. Except Code Purple which was a signal for one of them to bring home some chinese food while they were out — they were somewhat inebriated when they came up with the code system. But Avery knew that Mason would understand.

It only took her a second to send the message and as she was about to open her mouth to try and distract the man while she waited for her friends to arrive the man had started humming. Immediately Avery began to feel sleepy, her eyelids getting heavy. Another mistake in her plans was assuming that the man was entirely human other than his propensity for being able to control people somehow. Although she had never seen or heard of this mutant power before. The man's singing quickly put them all to sleep and in that moment before she went under Avery hated herself for not being able to protect her friends, two of the very few people she cared about.

When Avery finally woke up with a jolt she immediately noticed that the three of them were strapped down and though the man in the corner looked decades younger it was somehow the exact same man. He was more powerful than she could have imagined.

She kind of hated that her brain immediately noted that the man happened to be aesthetically pleasing. She also thought it was extremely unfair how the villains all seemed to look like models like what was it with being evil that somehow made everyone ten times more attractive.

"Finally you're all awake I was starting to get bored," he said with an over dramatic yawn and walked across the stone floor to stand in front of them.

"Who are you and what do you want with us?" Avery asked coldly but before the man could say anything Felix spoke up, his voice trembling.

"Avery, my powers aren't working," he said and began struggling against his bonds.

"Mine aren't either," Jackie added.

Avery didn't bother she could tell immediately tell that their bonds were too strong to break. And when Avery reached out with her mind to see if she could feel any electromagnetic energy she felt nothing. The man had somehow stolen all of their powers.

Her heart began to race when she noticed what felt like a gaping hole in her mind as if a vital part of soul was missing. She tried to calm herself down and hold her stoic expression while internally she was terrified at the emptiness inside her mind.

"Oh yes well that would happen to be because I took them and you can call me Tristan," the man said, grinning and the temperature of the room started to drop.

"Now, back to business. I will kill all of you, but before I do I would like you to tell me something. It would be easy to stage an accident for those two, but you are a wild card," he said pointing to Avery, "and we can't have that."

"I haven't seen someone use that mixed style of fighting before so tell me who trained you? Who do you work for? If you don't tell me your pretty little friend here is going to suffer," he said as he walked over and grabbed Felix hard by the jaw.

"No don't tell him anything!" Felix shouted but Avery could see the fear clearly on his face.

"Hurt me not him," Jackie spoke up, her voice firm. Her face was set in a hard mask, one that could rival Avery's.

Avery was starting to get really tired of her friends being self sacrificing idiots.

"Hmm, protective are we?," the man said turning to look at her, his grin turning even more sinister and Felix began struggling harder against the bonds.

But Avery knew it was no use he would never be able to get out of them by himself but Nick taught her how to escape things like these years ago. The only problem was doing it without the man noticing. Normally her arms were restrained behind her back but with them strapped to a table at her sides it would be a bit tricky and more obvious when she dislocated her thumbs.

It would be even harder considering how the man saw her pull out her knife earlier. Avery couldn't know for sure but she highly suspected that the man had x-ray vision which was just another power to add to the list which was who knew how long.

"Now you will tell me what I want to know or else your other pretty friend will suffer. She seems tougher but even so she won't last forever."

"Avery don't! No matter what he does," Jackie exclaimed!

Avery could see her friend was trying her best to stay strong and refusing to show any weakness. For the first time in a long time Avery didn't know what to do. She knew Stella and Mason were coming but she didn't know how long it would take and she couldn't just let him hurt Jackie. At the same time she couldn't reveal the identity of Shield which would put all the agents especially Nick.

But the man didn't seem eager to wait long and with only the flicker of electricity in his palm as a warning sign he gripped Jackie's neck, sending pulses of electricity through her body. Avery could tell they were quickly rising in intensity as Jackie's screams grew louder and her body started to tremble.

"Okay, Okay I'll tell you whatever you want to know just stop, please!" Avery shouted as soon as she got her bearings back.

The man finally released her and Jackie gasped for breath as tears flowed freely down her face.

"No don't do it," Jackie whispered, her voice hoarse from the screaming and Avery's heart broke at the sound.

Her best friend had suffered because of her and she would do whatever it took to stop it from continuing. At that moment Avery would have revealed all of Shield's secrets if it meant that Jackie wouldn't be hurt anymore.

"I knew you would comply eventually although I do have to admit your little friend here does have some spunk. So who do you work for, who trained you? I need to know if they are going to be a threat to my plans. And don't even try lying or she will suffer for it," the man said, electricity flickering in his hand again causing Jackie to flinch.

"I'm an agent for Shield – the Strategic Homeland Enforcement Intervention Logistics Division. It's a secret organization that—" Avery began, doing the last thing she could think of, stretching out the information to stall as long as she could until Mason and Stella arrived.

That's if they ever arrived… Even if she managed to get out all she had was her training as an agent and the man had both Felix, Jackie, and her powers as well as other powers unknown to her. But before Avery could give anything more away she heard a gunshot and saw a bullet going through the man's thigh.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Mason and Stella appear, Stella holding a gun in her hand. As Stella continued to shoot at the man Mason immediately went over to her and struggled to undo her bonds.

"In my shoe! I have another knife hidden in my shoe," Avery said hurriedly.

"Hey, hey I got you alright. I'm right here," Mason said as he quickly retrieved the knife and slashed the bonds holding her legs. After that Avery could handle the rest herself. But by the time she had dislocated her thumbs and freed her hands from the restraints she could see the man was gone.

"He may have powers but he's no fighter. He did a disappearing act as soon as I shot him, like he literally turned invisible. But I can tell he's not here anymore so he must've had a secret passage out of this place," Stella said, grabbing Avery's hand and helping her off the table.

"Can you figure out where he went?" She carefully pulled the gun out of Stella's shaking hands.

"From the way the blood is splattered in this direction and how the trail suddenly ends over there, there must be some hidden door around here," Stella said as she slowly regained control over her body and gestured to the back corner of the room.

"How are the they?" she turned to ask Mason as he finished releasing Jackie from her restraints.

His answer was cut off when Avery went to pull Jackie into her arms. She couldn't help but repeat "I'm sorry." and "It's all my fault." over and over again until Jackie finally placed a finger over Avery's lips to silence her.

"It's okay," Jackie replied softly and hugged her back.

Jackie and Avery gave a watery laugh when they heard Stella clear her throat behind them and Avery finally let her go so Jackie could hug their other friends as well.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner," Stella said gravely as she gave Jackie a hug as well.

Avery didn't ask where they had been even though she was dying to know. Stella and Mason were there now and that's all that mattered. She knew Mason must've told her about the pain he felt coming from Jackie and the mental flashes he saw of her being tortured as well. He only got visible flashes of what the person was thinking or experiencing from really strong emotions.

But when Jackie flinched as Felix went to hug her as well Avery didn't have to be an empath to know there was something wrong. It wasn't the time though.

"We should get out of here," Avery said, looking to Stella and Mason. "Do you think you can remember the way back?"

Avery sighed when they both shook their heads. "Then we're just going to have to figure out how he got out," she said examining the blood trail from where Stella shot him had ended abruptly.

As Avery began to look over the stone wall she noticed a bloody handprint on one stone and if the secret passage worked liked she thought it did she just had to push and like a charm part of the wall slid aside. Once they all piled through the opening Avery could see that they weren't very far from where Felix's car was parked as well as Avery's motorcycle.

"You guys rode my baby!" Avery exclaimed.

"I told you she would be mad," Mason said with a laugh, causing the rest of them to start laughing too, even Jackie.

Now that they were finally out of the mansion some of the tension began to leave her and the others as well. But when they reached Felix's car again it seemed like none of them knew what to do or say. Avery didn't want to leave them especially not after what happened to Jackie because of her but she had to figure out what to do about the evil mutant who escaped and now knew about Shield.

She couldn't leave Shield now after what just happened especially because it was her fault Tristan now knew of them but she had an idea she had been sitting on for a long while and now Avery knew it was time to do something about it.

"You told the man about Shield for me," Jackie blurted out breaking the silence.

"I couldn't watch him hurt you anymore than he already had," Avery said and reached out to grab Jackie's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

They all knew how serious it was for Avery to disclose the existence of Shield.

"I'll take my bike and meet you guys back at the mansion there's something I have to do. "Stella, Mason get them home safe alright?" Avery said, pulling them all in tight for quick a group hug.

"Yeah of course do whatever you have to do," Mason said giving her a concerned but trusting look before handing Avery the keys to her motorcycle.

After putting the keys into the ignition Avery swung a leg over her bike and revved the engine before speeding off into the night. She knew exactly where to go and who she needed to see.

Back when her friends first found out about why she was really there and the deal Avery had made with Professor X and Shield they had all created this silly fantasy about forming a team of mutants working under Shield. Everyone has heard of the Avengers but they came up with the idea that their little team would be top secret and only the highest ranking agents would know about it. Unlike the Avengers they wouldn't only form in situations where all of earth was threatened but would fight the small time villains too.

Now what was once only a little joke might now become a reality if Avery had anything to say about it. Both Shield and other mutants were being threatened and since the man had the ability to take away other mutants powers then they needed to work together. Mutants would need to know/learn how to hold their own in a fight without their powers.

It didn't take long for Avery to reach the Shield base and make her way to Fury's office. But she couldn't stop herself from hesitating outside the door(way). When she left that morning she was so set on leaving this all behind her. Funny how in just one afternoon everything can change, Avery thought to herself before pushing open the door.

"Who the hell do you think you — oh, Avery it's you. Come sit down. I didn't expect you until tomorrow morning," Fury said motioning to the chair in front of his desk. "I assume you've made up your mind?"

"I have but it's not going to be what you expect."

"Well in all the seven years I've known you, seeing you grow up from a snarky teen to a snarky young woman you have never ceased to surprise me. So you could say I'm fully prepared. Go on."

"I have decided to stay," Avery started and she could see one of Fury's eyebrows twitch and his eyes widen slightly but that was the extent of his response.

"But I've had an idea. I want to start a team as well. Not like the Avengers. It would be top secret and it would only contain mutants. I know it's different, unheard of, and has never been done before but they would be able to get things done an average team of agents couldn't and they could do it faster too.

"I've seen all the good you've done with the Avengers and I really want the chance to do the same. I want to help people and make a difference and I think having Shield agents who are also mutants could do a lot," Avery continued, trying to get it out as fast as she could and before Fury could shut her down.

"Okay."

"What?" Avery exclaimed. She knew she must've misheard him.

"I said okay." This time his eyebrow raised but it was the secretive smile on his face that worried her.

"But you're going to have to do something for me in return."

"And what would that be?" Avery said, doing her best to look cool and collected as if everything wasn't riding on what Nick would say next.

"You really care about this thing?" he asked shifting in his high backed chair.

"Yeah I do," she replied and this time Avery could see a real smile on his face.

"Then there are two things you need to do. One you will be training these kids along with an agent of my choosing. If you are going to do this it will be for real and they will be going through the mandatory training. But only that's if you can manage to recruit at least five mutants to join the team other than your little group of friends. In addition Agent Coulson will be overseeing this project of yours to—"

"Wait you're having Phil babysit me?!" Avery cut in.

—make sure nothing goes wrong." Nick continued as if she hadn't said anything.

It often felt like Nick treated her like his daughter—that is, as if he had one—and normally it didn't bother her. Avery had always sort of saw him as her surrogate father ever since he brought her in at nineteen and started training her himself along with the additional visit here or there. Somehow the weekly training sessions and evaluations to make sure she wasn't doing anything illegal turned into weekly visits to make sure she was doing alright and keeping her grades up with training on the side.

Their pseudo-father daughter relationship was odd but it worked and Avery had needed that in her life. Although it was at times like these when she finally got why kids in the movies complained about their parents. And in that moment she was very tempted to say "But daaad," just to see the look on Nick's face.

"He is just there to make sure you don't get in over your head, kid. And before you even think about opening your mouth—I have been calling you kid since I recruited you at nineteen and just because you're twenty-six doesn't mean I'm going to stop now."

They had this little argument every once and awhile and it never failed to make her grin. Avery wondered how bad she must've looked at that moment for him to pull it out now.

"Okay, okay, what's the next thing?" she asked lightly.

"I've been meaning to bring this up for a few months now but I wasn't certain if you were going to stay. Look the Avengers...they need back up. Stark is good with computers, I'll give him that, but he can't really focus on security cameras and traps when he's focusing on a battle as Iron Man.

"I need someone I trust having their backs and watching over them when things get bad and who will actually call me if backup is needed. I know this is a lot to ask of you but all I'm looking for is a trial. Just one mission and if things don't work out, they don't work out and you are free. But you have to actually try," Fury said.

"I'll do it," she replied.

This time it was Fury who looked surprised at how quickly she agreed but Avery knew how much it meant to Nick for him to ask her this even if he would never say it. It showed how much trust he had in her and she didn't want to let him down well not any more than she already had with telling the mysterious Tristan about the existence of Shield. Maybe this would make up for it even though Avery doubted it.

"Good now go get some sleep, you look like shit," Fury said gruffly, probably trying to make up for the emotions he just showed, and Avery laughed.

"You know what you look dead on your feet. I'll drive you to the institute instead. I can talk to Xavier and ask for some ideas about the new team while I'm there anyways," he added giving her the/his no nonsense look.

"But my bike—"

"Will be here for you when you get back and no one will touch it."

Avery didn't even ask him how he knew she had been going to stay the night at the institute. Nick knew, he always knew. If/when Nick cares about he may never say it but he will always show it albeit in a sneaky way usually but even though he's still a spy he can sometimes be kind of obvious.

When Avery and Fury finally entered the institute they found Mason and Stella waiting but Nick quickly went to find the professor, leaving the three of them alone to give them their privacy.

"Jackie and Felix are in bed, they had a hard day but we wanted to wait up for you. Mason filled me in on what he knows and what he's seen from Felix and Jackie but I need to hear the whole story. What happened in that mansion, who was that guy, and why the hell did Mason feel the need to tell me to get my gun when I haven't touched it in years? Oh and where were you when the needed you after all this shit went down?" Stella said her voice getting louder as her anger steadily began to rise.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have put you in that position. It's all my fault that—" Avery started until she began to feel faint and all the sudden she saw the floor hurtling closer to her face. But Mason caught her just in time and lifted her into his arms.

"I'm a twenty-six year old woman not a small child," Avery snapped half heartedly as he carried her bridal style.

But she wrapped her arms around Mason's neck anyways and hoped her friend didn't drop her. Everything was going in and out of focus and if Mason hadn't caught her she probably would've cracked her head open but Avery hated feeling weak.

"No I'm sorry I shouldn't have snapped I was just so worried about all of you and scared we'd be too late. You know I would do anything for you guys," Stella said and moved to lean over Avery as well, tears starting to slide down her cheeks.

Stella must've been more upset that she thought because Avery knew that her friend didn't like to be perceived as weak or emotional either.

"Don't apologize I'm the one that messed everything up so I went to—" Avery began but everything faded out again and it was getting harder and harder to remain conscious.

"C'mon I'm going to put her to bed too and we can all talk about what happened in the morning," Mason cut in holding her tighter to his chest and that was the last thing Avery heard before finally passing out in his arms.

* * *

"So what's going on with Avery. I know you know Charles," Fury said, storming into the professor's office.

"I don't know what you're talking about Nick," he answered calmly. "You know I don't read someone's mind unless I get their consent and she hasn't told me anything."

Charles didn't like lying to Fury but he knew needed to get the whole story from Avery before he said anything.

"She hasn't been asking about her parents anymore has she? You haven't told her anything?" Fury asked still sounding somewhat suspicious.

"No I think she's finally given up and has stopped looking for them entirely."

"That's good she doesn't need that kind of distraction especially not now. Did she tell you that she wants to form a team of mutant shield agents?"

"No this is the first time I've heard of this," and by the shocked look on Charles' face Fury knew that he was telling the truth.

"Yeah just like a chip off the old block. I always imagined her following in my footsteps but it never seemed like something she was interested in," Fury said with a fond smile on his face and Charles grinned.

He always found it interesting when Nick would let his walls down and expressed his fondness for the girl that was his daughter in every way but blood. He thought that might be another reason Nick was so adamant about Avery never learning about his parents was because if she met her real parents she might be taken from him. But she wasn't a little girl anymore and Charles knew that whether she ever met her real parents or not she would always see Nick as her father.

Nick raised her as his own and even if it wasn't in the normal way it was just as real maybe even more so considering the fact that he would kill for her. Avery had so very few people that actually cared for her in her life so Charles was extremely happy when she had met Jackie, Felix, Mason, and Stella. They would take care of her and be there for her in ways that neither Nick or Charles could.

"Well I think that would be an interesting idea and now that you mention it I already have a few old students of mine in mind."

"You know I would have to give them all background checks."

"Yes of course you would because obviously my word is not enough," Charles said, rolling his eyes.

"Well while I'm here you might as well lay them on me," Nick said with a small chuckle. Charles was an old friend of his but still he always liked to double check and Charles knew that.

"Well there are the twins Carmen and Cameron O'Conner also known as Scope and Sonar. Carmen has the ability to see at an extremely far distance as well as things small enough as specks of dust in the air. Her brother can obviously hear things from a long distance as well as hearing things so low as a human's heart beat. Then there is Peyton Byrnes who has the ability to control fire and is known as Inferno. Unlike her name suggests she keeps a cool head when in a crisis."

Nick could already tell that this was going to be a good group of mutants that would be a great asset to Shield and he was proud of Avery coming up with such a brilliant idea.

"There is also Kai Sheng. He has the ability to create force fields and is called Fortress. And of course you know Avery will want her friends to join but you already know what they can do so I don't doubt she knew you would already include them.

"Oh and last but not least is one of my current students Erica Miller also known as Mirror and has the ability to replicate other mutants powers and use them as her own. She has a hard time fitting in at the institute but maybe this will help her to be apart of something.

"There is also one another mutant I think you'll be interested in Tam Hawethorn but I long lost contact with him so maybe you can ask Avery to find him, she will know who you're talking about. I'm sure you would like to have Tam on your team. That will make ten of them to begin with if they all agree to join but if I think of anymore possible recruits I'll make sure to tell you."

"Well thank you. You've given me a lot to think about and if Avery tells you what's going on…"

"I'll let you know as soon as possible," Charles said with a smile.

"Good. So lunch same time as usual?"

"Of course. I was thinking of going to Hai Li. Avery seems to be very fond of that restaurant."

"Sounds good to me and we can discuss this team of mutants more then. Well goodnight Charles," Fury said with a nod of his head.

"Goodnight Nick," Charles said, feeling guilty as he watched Nick leave.

He was too old for this Charles thought and it was times like these where he could feel his age more than usual. Sometimes he thought about retiring but then there would be no one to run the school and the school was everything to him. He'd figure something out hopefully sometime soon he thought before getting back to work.


	4. Choices and Consequences

Avery sat straight up in bed, her body drenched with sweat. She could still see the nightmare playing like a movie behind her eyelids. This time when the man tortured Jackie he didn't stop. Jackie's body suddenly went limp and Avery saw her best friend die in front of her eyes, unable to do anything. Jackie's screams still rang in her ears. When Avery finally got her bearings back she realized that her friends were standing around her bedside and she was holding her knife in front of her in a defensive position. She always kept a knife under her pillow wherever she went just in case although she hoped she would never need it.

"Is there a reason you guys are standing around my bed at...wow it's eleven already?" Avery said, slipping the knife back under her pillow. Normally Avery always got up at nine o'clock on the dot every day without fail.

"Well maybe because you scared the hell out of me and Mason by passing out yesterday," Stella snapped. But the worried look on her face lessened the bite of her words.

"Also me and Felix realized we got our powers back this morning," Jackie said excitedly and a second later snow began falling from the ceiling.

"Hmm…" Avery said going over to the laptop on her desk. "Let me test something." A few keystrokes later "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley was blasting through the speakers of the institute causing all of them to crack up.

"The professor is going to kill you," Mason said with a laugh.

"It was totally worth it though" Avery said, smirking.

What she didn't tell them though is that it took her a couple minutes when usually it only took her a few seconds. She could see Mason giving her a weird look and Avery knew Mason probably noticed but she hoped her friend would let it go. Thankfully his attention was diverted when Felix went to show off his powers but as soon as electricity flickered in the air Jackie flinched.

"I actually think I remember the professor asking me to do something earlier so I should really be going. But stop by the training room before you leave, okay?" Jackie said hurriedly and gave Avery a hug before quickly leaving the room.

None of them missed the crushed expression on Felix's face which was even worse than it was last night.

"How are you feeling? You know you really did scare us," Stella said breaking the awkward silence.

"I'm feeling perfectly normally now. I honestly have no clue why I passed out."

"Well that's good," Stella said. Although, the suspicious look didn't leave her face.

"What were you about to say last night?" Mason asked.

"Well since I fucked up and told Tristan - if that's even his real name - about Shield -"

"That's not your fault! He was torturing Jackie and he might have even killed her," Felix said cutting her off.

Avery could see the broken look on his face and knew that what happened probably messed him up more than anyone else. Hell, he was practically in love with Jackie and the only one who didn't notice was her. Avery didn't know when it happened but it was definitely before she had met the two of them and somehow Jackie had yet to figure it out.

"Well since that happened I thought of this idea we had forever ago about a mutant team and brought it up with Nick. Surprisingly he was completely on board with it but we just have to get enough mutants to join, which is going to be extremely difficult considering the fact that I'm not the most sociable."

"Don't worry, we'll help. Do you have any idea of who you are going to recruit?" Mason asked.

All of Avery's friends looked excited about the idea of a mutant team except for Stella.

"No, but I know that Nick probably got some suggestions from the professor so I guess I'll find out when I get there. I better be getting back to Shield soon or Nick is going to have a fit. He was really worried about how awful I looked yesterday and I hope he's not suspicious. Well I'm going to get dressed now. I'll call you guys later today though alright?"

"Yeah just be safe," Mason began.

"And don't do anything dumb," Stella interrupted.

"I can give you a ride since you're still looking a little peaky," Felix offered, showing Avery his sad puppy dog eyes.

"Thanks Felix," Avery said giving him a fond smile. Even though they all saw him as sort of the baby of the group he was always looking out for them too.

"Well I guess we should be going then, feel better," Mason said before gently kissing Avery's forehead, something Avery never remembered him doing before. Then Stella and Felix gave her a hug before they all trailed out of her room to let her change. After getting dressed and saying goodbye to Jackie, Avery met Felix outside.

* * *

"So I wonder what that was with Jackie," Avery said with forced casualness as she slid into the passenger seat of Felix's car.

"You know what that was. She's afraid of me," Felix said as he pulled out of the parking lot. The hurt was clear in his voice.

"It's not you she is afraid of. It's because of what that man did to her and it will fade eventually," Avery said, trying her best to reassure her friend. "But I know what won't fade, your feelings for her. You should tell her once all of this has passed."

"She doesn't feel the same way."

"You don't know that! Mason, Stella, and I all agreed that we are tired of seeing you moon after her. You could just tell her how you feel! She could feel the exact same way," Avery said trying not to let her frustration show.

"We're here," Felix said and Avery saw that they were indeed already in the parking lot of Shield Headquarters.

"You're not off the hook yet. Just think about it, alright?" Avery said as she exited the car.

But Felix didn't say a word before pulling out and driving away.

* * *

"Knock Knock," Avery said as she pushed open the door to Nick's office.

"Well you look better. Compared to yesterday at least," Nick said, looking up from the paperwork on his desk.

"What high praise," Avery said with a laugh. "Did you stay here all night?"

"Charles has some suggestions on who you should recruit but before we get to that I would like you to meet someone." Fury got up and walked out from behind his desk and left the room, Avery automatically trailing behind him.

"You are avoiding the question," she said but when Nick continued to remain silent Avery sighed in frustration. "Who is it?"

"Tony Stark. He is surprisingly the most suspicious and paranoid of the Avengers so I thought it would be best that you meet him first. He is also damn protective of that team."

"This wouldn't happen to be because you tricked him by having Natasha Romanoff, also known as the Black Widow, go undercover and pose as his secretary, would it?" Avery asked sarcastically.

"How did you? Nevermind. Yes that could be one of the reasons but Stark was already a suspicious bastard by that time. And what did I tell you about hacking into Shield's database?"

"I didn't hack into Shield's database, I hacked into his," Avery said with a smirk.

It was a challenge and it took her longer than she was used to but it was still no match for her. Stark's firewalls were impressive though.

"Smartass," Fury said gruffly. But Avery could see the pride on his face. "I'm sure you two will get along fine, if he doesn't start a pissing contest that is. You both like to test my patience and can never seem to follow directions, so you have that in common."

They walked in comfortable silence for a while until Fury finally lead them to a part of the building Avery had never been to before. Avery had explored every nook and cranny of the X-Mansion in the first month she went there but Avery knew better than to do the same with Shield. That could have possibly gotten her killed, not like Nick would ever let anything happen to her though.

Avery was dying to know where exactly they were going but she could tell that it wasn't the moment to ask so she just followed Fury's lead. He pressed his palm against the hand scanner next to a large door then it beeped and turned green. Avery couldn't imagine what was behind it but she couldn't wait to find out. She gasped as Nick then pulled up his eyepatch and exposed his mutilated eye to the hidden cornea scanner and as that beeped and turned green too the door slid open. Avery had never seen under his eyepatch for all the time she's known Nick. She wondered how many other people he had shown before. Avery was proud to say that she was now one of them.

The door slid open to reveal a small aircraft and Avery's jaw dropped. But she said nothing as they both climbed into the two person jet.

"Take us to Avengers tower," Nick said and Avery wondered who he was talking to until another door slid open in front of the jet.

The aircraft took off and soon they were pulling into the landing pad of Avengers tower. Avery had never visited the tower before and she had never imagined she would.

Avery continued following Nick until they reached an elevator and when they got in Nick said, "Stark's workshop. He's expecting me."

"Yes, sir" said a voice coming from the ceiling.

Avery wasn't surprised. She knew exactly who this was. It Jarvis an AI created by Tony Stark also known as Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. She couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of the acronym. Avery had to admit Jarvis was impressive and she wondered how long it would take to hack him.

Nick must've known what was running through her head because he quickly said "Don't even think about it."

As soon as they stepped in the elevator it lowered them down deeper and deeper until they finally reached the basement and with a ding the elevator doors opened. The doors slid open to reveal a magnificent workshop and Tony Stark sitting in a chair, hunched over a laptop with his back facing them. There was hard rock music blasting through the speakers that quickly turned off at their arrival.

Tony barely glanced up from his typing when they walked in, and only spared enough time for a brief once-over. "I'm busy right now so can we get this over with quickly?"

Fury ignored him. "Stark I'd like you to meet Avery or who we used to know as The Cipher. She's a Shield agent and the best computer expert and hacker we have."

Tony groaned and rolled his eyes. "Fury what did I tell you about the word "expert"? I specifically said not to use it that liberally, didn't I say that? Because I distinctly remember saying that." He then turned to Avery. "Look, I'm sure you're great and all but I got real work to do so why don't you two leave me alone while I try and crack this?" Tony let out a sigh and returned to his furious typing.

Avery wasn't exactly on board about working with the Avengers in the first place. So she couldn't help but be annoyed that Nick dragged to meet the famous Tony Stark when her time could be better spent planning and recruiting for the mutant team. But when Stark practically dismissed her Avery couldn't help but be ticked off, especially because he doubted her expertise in computers. She looked over his shoulder observing the code Stark was trying to crack and snorted. Avery could've hacked something like that when she was seventeen.

"Get out of my way," Avery snapped as she pushed Tony and his chair to the side and focused on the computer. After a few seconds of typing she finished cracking the code and turned to look at Tony smugly.

"I am the best computer expert there is." Avery informed Stark, putting emphasis on the word expert, before turning to look at Nick. "And you wanted me to meet him why exactly?" She asked him sarcastically before walking out of the room.

* * *

Tony stared at the door stunned and Fury looked smug.

"Think my use was too liberal now?"

Tony could only shake his head in amazement. He went back through the code, the complex algorithms she had typed like they were nursery rhymes. She had done all his work for the day in a couple minutes. His pride suddenly caught up to him, wounded that he had been outsmarted by this mystery agent.

"Whatever. I'm sure I've seen better."

Fury raised an eyebrow, incredulous.

"Not likely. Hell I doubt there _is_ better."

Fury then dropped a file on Tony's desk with the words "The Cipher" stamped on it. It was barely an inch thick and as Tony flicked through it he glimpsed scattered pieces of code and a few scraps of personal information but that was about it.

"Get reading." Fury said on his way out.

Tony took a quick look through the file, trying to figure out just who this "Cipher" was. Apparently all her files online had been cleared - and long ago at that. Then there was absent records from an orphanage, Jane Doe's checked into hospitals, and missing government records. All of them helped him to piece together a part of who she was. But he still didn't have the whole picture, and it bothered him. He saw some of the attempted hacks and was impressed. The file helped fill in the blanks but nothing could tell him what he wanted to know: how did this girl break down firewalls he'd worked two days on in a few seconds?

Tony wanted to get to know this strange girl more and if he wanted to do that he would have to do the one thing he absolutely hated...he would have to apologize.

* * *

After Avery had made her point she waited outside of the door for Nick to come back so they could return to Shield Headquarters. This visit seemed like a waste of her time. But at the same time if Avery wanted to create the mutant team then she had to attempt to make nice with the Avengers and for her first try she wasn't doing so well. Sometimes Avery wished she really was a computer instead of her brain only working like one so she didn't have to worry about her pride getting in the way.

Avery breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Nick exit the workshop. They could finally go back to headquarters she thought when he walked up to her. But to Avery's surprise not only had Nick left the workshop but Stark did too and he was heading straight toward her.

"Can I talk to Avery? I wanted to apologize."

She could tell that Nick was in shock too because he wasn't saying a thing and it took a lot to surprise Nick Fury. Nick then cleared his throat obviously trying to get his bearings back.

"I'll meet you back at the jet Avery, don't take to long," he said before giving Stark a warning look and stalking off, his trench coat fanning behind him like it was blowing in the wind. Nick was always so dramatic and Avery found it hilarious.

"So like I said I wanted to apologize for how I acted earlier," Stark continued, turning back to Avery.

Avery was still kind of in shock as well but she knew she had to say something.

"Why do you want to apologize?"

"I'm not the best at making good first impressions and I usually rub people the wrong way so I just wanted to try again. Especially because you impressed me back there and that is extremely rare. I also really want to get to know you better and I thought that would be harder to do if you were pissed off at me."

"That is a logical assumption. Can I ask you something then? Do you have some grudge against the heat?"

Avery absolutely hated the cold and it felt like Stark's workshop was freezing but she wasn't going to reveal that particular weakness.

"It so happens that I do," Stark said with a strained smile.

"Ah yes now I remember Afghanistan, Obadiah's kill order, ten rings right?"

Tony flinched. "How the hell did you know Obadiah ordered the ten rings to kill me?"

"I like to do my research," Avery replied. "But don't worry I know how to keep a secret. I was trained by the best spy there is."

"You were personally trained by Fury? I never knew he trained agents," Stark said looking shocked.

"It's a well kept secret so now you have one on me too."

"So you're the kid I caught hacking into Shield all those years ago. Well it seems that you sure as hell grew up," Tony said looking her up and down.

It didn't take Avery too long to realize that Stark was the one that had caught her when she accidentally hacked into Shield at nineteen, but it was nice to have her hypothesis confirmed. Avery should've known back then that a genius could have only been caught by a genius.

"Well I'll be watching you. I'm looking forward to seeing what you are going to do in the future."

"And I'll be watching you too," Avery replied causing Stark to laugh before he turned to walk back to his workshop.

Then she saw Stark look back at her over his shoulder. "Oh and you can call me Tony. I could practically hear you calling me Stark in your head," he said with a wink. Then her entered the workshop and disappeared from her sight.

* * *

After Avery's interesting first impression of Tony she returned to the Shield base with Nick. When Nick left to return to his office Avery continued down the hall until she was intercepted.

"Hey Cipher want to spar?" Avery heard someone shout from her left.

It was another Shield agent and a group of his friends. The other Shield agents never called her by her real name and they always said her mutant name with disgust and derision. Avery knew that if she agreed it wasn't going to be a fair fight, it almost never was, but she wasn't going to back down regardless.

"Right now? You sure you don't need to warm up?" Avery asked with a smirk.

"Training Room C right now," the agent snapped, whose name Avery just remembered was Butch,

"What do you need your bodyguards for?" Avery asked gesturing to the group of male and female Shield agents assembled behind him. "You're not afraid of lil' ole me are you?"

"I was thinking we could see how good you are against multiple attackers since you are apparently an official Shield agent now. We just want you to be prepared if they ever give something like you a real mission," Butch said, his lip curled in a sneer.

Avery knew all of the other Shield agents hated her but no one was either brave or stupid enough to act on it. To them Avery was a freak, a liability, she wasn't one of them. They all knew how she got there too, by hacking into Shield's database and other high security organizations. They thought that if she was ever given the chance she would turn on them too. The other Shield agents had always wanted her gone since she first started at Shield five years ago and now it seemed like some of them were prepared to finally act on it. But Avery couldn't be gotten rid of that easily and she had a job to do. She had to find and get rid of Tristan and she wasn't going to let some whiny Shield agents get in the way of that.

"Fine Training Room C in fifteen minutes," Avery replied before leaving to get changed into her training gear. Training Room C was the least used training room and very few people ever went in there.

Avery returned fifteen minutes later on the dot to see the group of them all prepared and she couldn't help but feel nervous about this. She was a great fighter but there was about ten of them and she didn't know how many she was going to have to fight. But in the end it didn't matter because this was the moment where she would prove herself to all of them that she deserved to be there.

"Let's go," Avery said stepping on the mat, her hands already wrapped up.

They circled each other for a bit until Butch finally tried to hit her and Avery easily blocked the attack. Time slowed down and she could feel her instincts as a Shield agent kicking in. Avery's greatest asset was her speed. After a few more minutes of this Avery could see he was starting to get angry which would cause him to lower his guard. Just when Avery was about to strike back she saw a swing aimed at the side of her body that she had to dodge. Suddenly more agents joined the fight. Avery went into a defensive fighting stance and when another agent came forward to attack her she swept their legs underneath them causing them to hit the mat hard. She then quickly pulled another agents arm behind their back and smashed their head into another's putting them both out of commision.

While she was doing this Avery was trying her hardest to dodge attacks coming at her from all sides. But some still landed and due to the damage done to her solar plexus Avery could tell she had a few broken ribs and she was having a hard time breathing. Avery could feel her body starting to tire out. She wasn't trying to seriously hurt the other agents but it seemed like they didn't have any qualms about that.

Avery then thrust upward with the palm of her hand at another agent coming towards her, causing his nose to break. She suddenly suffered a blow to the side of her head while at the same time another agent twisted her arm behind her back causing it to break. Avery grunted in pain. She could feel something sticky on her forehead that was probably blood and the sweat that covered her face almost blinded her. Avery's ears also wouldn't stop ringing after the hit to the side of her head.

Avery was still landing punches but she didn't think she could keep it up without actually doing some real damage to them. Despite her thorough training Avery didn't know if she could continue on much longer. Ten against one weren't the best odds especially with no weapons and the fact that she was holding back, trying to do the the least damage possible while it looked like they were almost fighting to kill. Avery knew before the fight even began that it wasn't going to be just sparring but she couldn't have imagined this.

Then the agents started shouting things at her like, "You're a freak!" and "You don't even belong here!" Avery thought she had gotten over those dark thoughts in her head a long time ago but suddenly every doubt and awful opinion she had about herself came rushing back. Eventually all she could see was bloody fists coming at her. Her whole body felt weighed down but Avery did her best to continue fighting.

Suddenly everything stopped and she heard a loud voice booming in her ears but she couldn't tell where it was coming from. Her vision was fading in and out and Avery was worried she might faint. She didn't know how she was even standing anymore and although her whole body felt like it was on fire the lack of additional attacks was a sweet relief.

* * *

On Nick's orders Phil had gone to talk to Avery about the mutant team and discuss possible recruits as well as the agent he assigned to work with her. But when he didn't find her in her room he went to the training rooms, the only two places she ever went during her free time. After looking in training rooms A and B he tried his luck with C although it was usually abandoned. He never imagined that when he finally found her she would have been beaten to a bloody pulp by their fellow agents and he was absolutely furious. Phil almost never expressed emotion which caused him to be called a robot by other agents although that was how he had to act as their superior but he couldn't hold himself back this time.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Phil shouted his eyes burning with anger. He could tell that Avery was barely standing at that moment and as soon as the agents started making excuses he gave them a cutting look that immediately silenced them. "Go to Fury's office now!" he shouted before running up to Avery. He then wrapped her uninjured arm around his neck and supported her as he walked her out of the training room.

Just by looking at her he could tell that one arm was broken, her ankle was sprained, and she had a few broken ribs as well. Her body was also covered in bruises. Looking back to what happened a few moments ago Phil couldn't ever remember truly losing control in a long time. He was always able to keep his cool in any situation. But seeing Avery falling apart like that Phil couldn't keep his emotions in check. Avery was practically Nick's daughter and he felt responsible for her as well since he had never seen his best friend care so much about one person before. Phil had also grown to care for the girl as well.

It took awhile but after a lot of effort he eventually managed to help Avery to her room and gently laid her on the bed. She looked like she was fading in and out and he had to shake her to make sure she stayed conscious. He had never seen her so messed up before no matter how far she had pushed her body and how hard she had trained in the past. But Phil knew exactly who to call to make sure Avery got patched up again. He put her number in his phone a long time ago just in case of emergencies.

"Excuse me, Stella this is Agent Coulson. Avery has been injured and she is in need of your aid," he said, trying his best to sound calm and collected.

Phil had to hold the phone away from his ear for a minute due to the fact that Stella was yelling at him through the phone and she wasn't holding anything back.

"Look, Avery is the only thing that matters right now, so can you please come over to Shield headquarters as fast as you can," Phil said, interrupting her furious tirade.

Thankfully Stella didn't start yelling again and just gave him her assent. It surprised Phil how quickly Stella had made it there and since Stella already had access she went right to Avery's room.

"You better tell me what the hell happened right now," Stella said in a deadly tone. Avery could've died yesterday and now it looked like she was close to death again. Stella felt like she was going to break down seeing the mess that used to be her best friend but she was trying her best to keep it together.

In that moment Phil could see that Stella was prepared to kill whoever had dared to hurt Avery and go through whoever she had to, to find them. Phil wasn't feeling very inclined to stop her either.

"I will inform you of what has occurred later but right now Avery needs you. Let me deal with the people who did this."

Before Phil left the room he could see Stella starting to heal Avery's wounds while also taking away her pain. Phil walked through the halls like a man on a mission and he barely took note of the many agents that hurried out of his way when he passed by, terrified of the expression on his face. When he finally reached Nick's office he could see Nick staring the agents down while they shifted nervously in their seats.

"What happened," Fury asked Phil, not looking away from them for a second.

"Agent Morris and the others here thought it would be good idea to beat Agent Plafaire half to death," Phil replied, his voice cold as ice.

He could see Nick's fists clench behind his back and couldn't help but be slightly impressed at the amount of control Nick was exhibiting.

"I will give you one chance to explain yourselves and it better be a good fucking explanation," Nick snapped.

Agent Morris, the leader of the group, then spoke up. "That freak attacked us and she shouldn't even be here in the first place. We did you a favor!"

"You are saying that Agent Plafaire decided to attack all ten of you unprompted? You had your chance. Now you need to get the fuck out of my sight before I shoot your ass."

"You're choosing that mutant freak over your best agents?" another agent exclaimed

"Do you fucking look like Romanoff or Barton?" Nick asked raising an eyebrow, furious at their audacity to speak back to him.

"Can't you tell she's manipulating you?" a different agent spoke up.

"Obviously you don't have a good grasp of her powers. Agent Coulson get them out of my sight," Nick barked.

Phil could tell that Nick was trying his best to keep his cool and stop himself from actually shooting them. Phil could understand the urge and if Avery had died Nick wouldn't have bothered to hold back.

"Gladly," Phil responded and the look he gave them had all the agents scurrying out of the room.

"Make sure they leave the premises and confiscate their weapons and badges. Oh and gather all the other agents I need to have a talk with them."

* * *

Phil could hear all the Shield agents talking amongst themselves probably wondering why they are all there, but as soon as Nick walked in the room went silent. Phil zoned in and out all throughout Nick's speech. He couldn't stop thinking about how broken Avery looked in the training room and he was glad that Nick didn't have to see her like that. Stella would have probably finished healing Avery by now.

"...and if you ever harm a fellow agent well let's just say being thrown out on your ass will be the least of your worries," Nick finished, dismissing the agents with a wave of his hand.

Once all the agents finally cleared out Nick turned to Phil.

"How bad?"

"I don't think you want to know," Phil said with a weary sigh.

"How bad?" Nick snapped.

"A broken arm, twisted ankle, multiple broken ribs and she was bruised all over. She might have a head injury as well because there was blood dripping down the side of her face."

"Fuck! I should've shot them when I had the chance."

"That wouldn't have helped Avery. But I called Stella and I think Avery should be at least partially healed and looking better right now," Phil said as he and Nick walked to Avery's room to check up on her.

Avery immediately sat up when Phil and Nick entered the room and thankfully she was looking better Phil thought to himself.

"What's the look for old man?" Avery said to Nick with a forced smile.

"You could have taken them out no problem so why didn't you?" Nick asked, but all of them already knew why.

"I refuse to hurt another agent and they were right. I am a freak and—"

"No you are not Avery," Stella snapped, cutting her friend off.

"She's right and what they did was wrong. But don't worry me and Nick handled it. Just get some rest okay?" Phil said.

"Oh and if a Shield agent ever turns on you again you have my permission to kill them," Nick added.

Obviously too tired to argue with them Avery just nodded and laid back down and Phil, Nick, and Stella left her to sleep.


	5. Potential Superhero Material

Avery heard Felix speaking in rapid Spanish as soon as she answered her phone the next day, which he normally did whenever he was upset. It was always jarring when it happened, seeing as her best friend was such a happy-go-lucky person. She had a strong feeling he was cursing the Shield agents out. With all the languages she knew for some reason Avery had yet to learn spanish.

Felix, Jackie, and Mason were still at the institute. After what had happened yesterday it probably wouldn't be a good idea for them to visit, Stella told Avery when she woke up. Avery called her friends soon after to let them know she was really okay.

"Hey calm down Sparky!" Stella said from behind Avery.

Immediately Avery began humming the French lullaby her father sang for her when she was a baby. Her memory was like a hard drive, in a way, and each memory she made was downloaded in it until she decided to delete it, even memories made when she was a baby. But when she was a baby she only made memories of things that actually caught her attention and not the things that seemed unimportant to her at that age. As she grew up Avery trained herself to pick up every little detail to sift through later and decide whether it was important or not.

It was easy for her to go from humming the beginning of the song to singing _Au clair de la lune_ , a well known lullaby in France. It always calmed Felix down when she sang it to him just like it did for Avery when she was a baby, even if he didn't understand the words. Due to the fact that her father was French, Avery picked up French naturally when she was in high school and continued learning it ever since. As the song finally came to a close all Avery heard over the phone was slow breathing.

"You know that's cheating right. Those agents deserve a good shock."

"Felix isn't wrong," Jackie added.

"It's over and done with Sparky," Avery said gently. "And yes I know that's cheating." She added causing them to laugh.

They all talked for a little while and Stella decided that she would stay to watch over Avery and make sure she was alright until she had to go on the mission.

* * *

"I'm cleared to go on the mission!" Avery exclaimed an hour later, standing in Nick's office.

"Not after what happened yesterday."

"Nick, I swear I'm perfectly fine to go on the mission, alright. Stella completely healed me," Avery said exasperatedly. The sooner Avery went on the mission the sooner she could start recruiting for the team. "And it's only a recon mission."

"How did you—I don't know why I even bother asking anymore." Nick let out an amused sigh.

"I can do this."

"Fine, but nothing better go wrong."

Nick knew that nothing would dissuade Avery when she had her mind set on something.

* * *

Avery arrived right before Romanoff, Barton, and Rogers; her computer case clipped to her waist so she could use it to hack into the enemy's database. She was in the hangar where the helicarrier was parked. Barton was checking over his bow while Romanoff stared her down.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Steve, that's Natasha and that's Clint," Rogers said, pointing to them all in turn.

Barton raised a hand up but Romanoff just continued staring at her silently. They were all geared up in their custom suits while Avery just wore her usual leather jacket, boots, and blue jeans. With one glance it was obvious that she didn't belong.

"Hello," Avery said blandly and Rogers looked taken aback, probably at her lack of reaction to meeting the famous Captain America.

Once she met _the_ Nick Fury nothing else impressed her much.

"So this is the agent Fury sent. She doesn't look to be of much use," Romanoff said looking Avery up and down with a cold expression.

"Barney Barton and the carnival, then mercenary, and then Shield," Avery said after turning to Barton. "Oh and lying to your teammates by pretending to be someone else before you meet them wasn't the best idea," Avery continued, looking at Romanoff next. "Five 4F's in five different cities, Brooklyn, New Haven, Paramus, should I continue?" She finished, ending with a glance at Rogers. "Considering that your pasts weren't all sunshine and rainbows you shouldn't judge me before you get to know me."

"You hacked into Shield," Romanoff said. Her fists clenched by her sides and her brows furrowed.

"You hacked into Tony's life," Avery shot back smoothly.

"Oh, so you can call him Tony now?" Romanoff scoffed but before Avery could respond with a sarcastic remark Rogers cut in.

"How do you know that? I only know of a few people who knew that about me and they're all dead." Rogers looked almost too shocked to be suspicious.

"And Barney I never talk about him...ever..." Barton added. He was giving her an impressed look.

"I like to do my research," Avery replied with a smirk.

She always loved to see the surprised look on people's faces when they realized what she could do.

"I don't know why, but for some reason Fury seems to trust you. That doesn't mean we do. You may be going on this one mission but don't let that fool you into thinking you're actually a part of the team. So do your best to learn your place," Romanoff spoke up; no doubt giving Avery her most threatening stare, trying to intimidate her.

Avery wasn't happy with the situation either and while she wanted to make Nick proud, those feelings didn't extend to the rest of the Avengers. But she had a job to do and she promised Nick she would do it. She just wanted to get it over with already. Nick must not have told them who she was to him, Avery surmised.

"The hell Nat?" Barton exclaimed, shocked at her sharp words and harsh tone.

Maybe it would have worked if Avery hadn't been personally trained by Nick Fury and knew for a fact that he wouldn't let the assassin lay a finger on her. Instead she completely ignored the woman's words and met her stare head on. Nick warned her ahead of time Romanoff would be the second most suspicious of an outsider.

Finally she broke away from the look and turned to Rogers.

"The mission?" Avery asked with a raised eyebrow, despite already knowing what it was.

His mouth suddenly closed with a snap, whatever he had been about to say forgotten in his obvious surprise at her lack of response. Her mask, slowly perfected over the years, was something even the famous Black Widow couldn't see through and that gave Avery a small level of comfort. He was still looking at Avery in awe but Romanoff just looked even more unhappy and Barton looked curious.

"We've been hearing about strange things going on in a giant abandoned warehouse in New York City, and we think some villains are working together to make something big. There has been talk of some villains gathered together and working on a weapon, something that will not only take out the Avengers but all superheroes and mutants alike, anyone who might stand in their way," he said while giving Avery a particular look that she couldn't decipher.

It was odd because it seemed as if Rogers hadn't tried masking his emotions since Avery had met him. Yet Avery couldn't figure out what he was feeling other than the fact that Nick seemed to have told him that she was a mutant.

Finally, Barton spoke up. "Well, let's get a move on then."

* * *

When they finally entered the quinjet and sat in their seats Avery spoke up. "Do you know who the villains are?"

"All we know is that we've faced them in the past but we don't know exactly who they are. Although we do know they've never worked together before."

"Then what has changed?"she asked although Avery had a good idea what it could be.

"I don't know, but that's what we are about to find out. This is just a recon mission to figure out what is going on and who exactly we are going up against but there will be no fighting, understood?"

They all nodded. Avery looked toward the cockpit where Romanoff was flying the quinjet but she gave nothing away. Finally after thirty-six minutes and twenty-one seconds they arrived at what looked to be a broken down warehouse, but Avery knew looks could be deceiving. As the quinjet finally landed Rogers turned around to address them all.

"Now we're just here to investigate and report back to Shield. Again, there will be no fighting. We can't reveal ourselves at any cost. Like always, we will be using our code names in the field. Now let's get going," Rogers paused and looked at Avery. "Avery you will obviously be our eyes and ears, feeding us information through the hack their database and take down all of their defense and alarms, understood?"

She nodded, hoping that the mission would be over soon. Rogers threw them all earpieces and Avery caught hers as she pulled out her laptop. She immediately began hacking into the enemies database and security cameras, looking for other security measures they might have set up.

"I turned off the main security so the building should be good to enter without any alarms going off," Avery said into the comms.

"Good job, Cipher. Can you tell us the villains we're up against."

Only the other mutants at the institute called her by that name without using it as an insult so it took a second or two for Avery to get her bearing back.

"I thought you said no fighting Captain," Avery said jokingly but then answered his question. "The villains seem to be Doctor Doom, Aldrich Killian, M.O.D.O.K and his A.I.M agents. From what I see they're arguing about something. What I don't understand is how and where they got all of that technology," Avery said after hacking into the system.

"I guess that's another mystery we are going to have to figure out. But why are those three working together?" Rogers asked although he didn't seem expect an answer.

"They are on the top floor of the building. There are lasers in the room to your left which means there is probably something that way. I am deactivating them now. I also unlocked the door so you should be good to go."

"Nice work, Cipher."

Just as Romanoff, Barton, and Rogers went left Avery felt a stabbing pain in her head and she automatically clutched at her skull, hoping that it would go away. She breathed a sigh of relief when the pain finally started to fade, after what felt like an eternity, only to hear alarms. When she looked back to her computer there were flashing red lights as well. That was never a good sign.

During the time she was in pain Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton had continued on and run into a trap. The trap happened to be a magnetic ceiling that, unlike a regular magnet, was capable of attracting any type of metal, and it did its job. As soon as they stepped under it Barton's bow and arrows, and Romanoff's guns were all stuck to the ceiling and out of reach. Rogers' shield became stuck to it too, taking Rogers with it. As much as he struggled, at the angle he was at he couldn't manage to get free. The ceiling also happened to have an alarm sensor and seconds later dozens of A.I.M agents came storming in with more following behind and surrounded Romanoff and Barton.

"I'm stuck dammit," Rogers said through the comms and Avery tried not to snicker but Barton and Romanoff didn't hold back.

Avery grabbed her gear and hopped out of the quinjet, locking the quinjet behind her. After she looked back to check, it still looked like nothing was there thanks to the invisibility cloaking Tony programmed into the quinjets. Avery took off in the direction the Avengers went, having automatically memorized the floor plans.

As soon as she arrived Avery saw Barton and Romanoff trying to fight the agents off, but without their weapons they began to get overwhelmed due to the sheer number of agents they were fighting. Thankfully she had brought her knives with her on the mission just in case and Avery immediately threw herself into the fight. She was taking down agents left and right, just like Romanoff and Barton. But no matter how good she was there were too many agents coming at her and she got overwhelmed too. Avery eventually had to retreat to the quinjet and rethink her strategy. It had been reckless of her to jump in the fray without backup anyways.

Looking back to her computer she could see that Romanoff and Barton had been captured and taken to what looked like an exact copy of the cell Shield had put Loki in. The more Avery thought about the situation the worse the feeling in Avery's gut got. None of it felt right. If she ever wanted to rescue the Avengers, she would have to go back and tell Nick what happened. But then she would have to face his disappointment when she told him she couldn't handle one simple recon mission and that it was her fault that Romanoff, Barton, and Rogers had been captured.

No, this was her mess and she was going to clean it up with the help of her best friends Avery hoped. She knew she couldn't do it all by herself. With that idea in mind, She jumped in the cockpit and started to fly the quinjet back to Shield headquarters. Each agent had to take at least five classes on how to fly a quinjet when they were recruited and with Avery's affinity for electronics it was easy for her to take control over the plane even if she didn't have too much experience with aircraft.

* * *

Once Avery finally arrived at headquarters she landed the plane mile away, as to not draw attention and the cloaking device helped as well. Once she finally reached her room through the secret passageway she'd discovered a while back, she called her friends. They were always there for each other and Avery definitely needed them now.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Mason asked when he picked up the phone.

Avery didn't even know how to begin and explain what had happened so she remained silent.

"What happened this time?" Mason then asked with a sigh.

Avery knew he would figure it out.

"I messed up really bad and now the Avengers are captured and I need help rescuing them."

"We'll be there as soon as we can. Why is it that you can never seem to stay out of trouble?" Mason asked jokingly.

"I guess it's just a part of my charm."

"Let me go tell Stella, Felix, and Jackie what happened. Hold on okay. We'll be there soon," Mason said before hanging up.

They arrived ten minutes and forty-nine seconds later when Avery knew the drive usually took around fifteen minutes. Jackie must have been driving. She was always the fastest driver but the best out of all of them too.

She heard a knock on her floor and lifted the hatch to the trap door. Avery had told them about the secret passageway years ago and they always used it when more than one of them visited at a time.

"What happened," Felix asked.

"It was a simple recon mission with the Avengers, the one I promised Nick I would do. I missed a trap in the security and now because of me Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff have been captured. There has been talk that Doctor Doom, Aldrich Killian, and M.O.D.O.K along with his A.I.M agents are working on a device that will take down not only all superheroes but anyone with powers—mutants included. The mission was to figure out what exactly they were working on and if this so called weapon actually exists."

"What really happened? Because I refuse to believe that you missed something while simply deactivating security measures, especially when it came to something this big. Hacking is what you do and I don't know anyone who does it better than you," Stella said, looking at Avery skeptically.

"I wasn't paying attention and just messed up okay!"

Avery could tell that Stella didn't believe her and neither did Mason or Jackie—Felix was less observant—but she wasn't going to tell them what really happened and the excruciating pain she felt. That would only make them worry even more about her and that was the last thing Avery wanted.

"Now I need to rescue them and I was hoping you guys could help. To free them would also include fighting the villains. I know you all have had training but I also understand if this is too much to ask and I don't blame any of you if you say no," Avery said, trying to get the words out as quickly as possible.

"You don't even have to ask. If you guys are going to do something stupid you're not doing it without me to watch your back. Why the hell are you not calling Fury for back up anyways?

"Nick sent me on what was supposed to be an easy mission and I can't stand to tell him that I messed up this simple thing. I screwed things up again like I did with Tristan and this is actually something that I can fix."

"You know—" Stella began before Felix interrupted her.

"We should really give that creepy guy a super villain name cause Tristan doesn't sound scary enough," Felix cut in. It caused them all to laugh and diffused the tension slightly. He was always good at that. "Oh, and I'm definitely in!" Felix was bouncing on the balls of his feet and looked like he was ready to go that second.

"Anyways as I was saying, you know we'd do anything for you…well not just anything," Stella continued causing everyone to laugh again.

"Of course I'll help," Mason said.

"You know I did actually have a blind date planned for tonight, his name is Brant, but I guess I can figure out a way to let him down easily," Jackie said playfully.

"I don't even know why you would need a blind date but let Brant know I'm sorry for ruining his evening," Avery said, trying to act as normal as possible after seeing Felix flinch. "We should probably get going now," she continued quickly, as she opened the trap door again. Underneath the trap door was a flight of stairs leading to the bottom floor and an exit out of Shield headquarters.

When she first discovered it Avery knew the Professor had probably told Nick that she was always disappearing at the institute because she felt cramped when she stayed in once place too long. She was so glad that she had the trap door because it was nice to get out whenever she wanted.

"Where are we going exactly?" Jackie asked Avery. Her voice broke the silence that had settled when what they were about to try and accomplish finally sank in.

"I parked the quinjet a mile from here and it still has the coordinates to the warehouse."

It took them sixteen minutes and thirteen seconds to walk to the quinjet due to the fact that they were in a rush.

"I'm assuming you know how to fly this thing?" Felix asked jokingly when they entered the quinjet and Avery sat in the pilots seat.

"It's all up here," Avery said, grinning as she pointed to her brain and lifted them off the ground.

* * *

"We are only using our alias' when we communicate, alright? I really don't want any of them to know our real names," Avery spoke up as she slowly began their descent and landed the quinjet.

"Sounds good to me," Mason said.

"Here are some comms I swiped while I was waiting for you guys so we can keep in touch and back each other up when needed," she continued, passing them each the communications device.

"So what's the plan?" Jackie asked, looking at Avery along with the rest of her friends.

It took Avery a couple seconds, not because she hadn't already had a plan in mind but because Avery was terrified that she made the wrong choice by getting her friends into this mess. But she quickly shook the thought off. Avery's friends were there because they chose to be and although they didn't have Shield training like her, they did have training. She believed that they could do this just like they believed in Avery to lead them. Once her resolve had hardened she looked at all of them and finally spoke up.

"Okay, this is what we're going to do. First of all, there are going to be A.I.M agents guarding the Avengers. There's still M.O.D.O.K and Doctor Doom who are heavy hitters, so we are going to have to take them down if we want to free the Avengers. Stella, I will mentally hack the electronic lock of the cell the Avengers are in so you can go and free them. Then you can heal Romanoff and Barton if any of them are seriously injured. Mason you know how to fight well so you can keep the A.I.M agents off Stella while Jackie, Felix, and I go up against M.O.D.O.K and Doom. When Stella is finished the Avengers should be there to back us up.

"After we finish off M.O.D.O.K and Doom, Felix you need to short out whatever is keeping the magnetic ceiling running. It's unnatural and so it must be powered somehow. I saw something like that in the room above the magnet which is on the second floor. Rogers is stuck there as well as Romanoff and Barton's weapons and they are going to need them. Last of all there's still the unknown weapon that we are going to have to retrieve so once the Avengers are free, can you find it Mason? Or any information about it? That is really important. It is on the right side in the middle room of the top floor. There is a safe and they must be keeping it or information on it in that."

When Avery finished she looked around to see her friends inserting their comms into their ears and Stella checking that her weapons were there and at the ready.

"Copy that Director," Felix said with a smirk.

"Don't let Nick hear you call me that," Avery replied, rolling her eyes with a laugh. "Now, are you guys ready?"

Once everyone had confirmed that they were ready to go she led them out of the quinjet and toward the warehouse.

"From what I saw, the Avengers are being kept on the second floor in the back right corner in a cell pretty much identical to the one Loki was being kept in." Avery wasn't sure where they were getting all that tech but she could make an educated guess. "Killian seems to be working on something in a lab the next room over, possibly the device. The security cameras are still out so if Doc and Pathos are stealthy enough you two should be able to reach the cell unimpeded," Avery whispered when they finally entered the abandoned warehouse. Although with the technology she saw and how clean it was it didn't look too abandoned to her.

Stella and Mason nodded, breaking off from the group and climbing the stairs to the second floor, in search of the room where Barton, and Romanoff were being held.

"When I hacked into their security system I also saw a large room where M.O.D.O.K and Doctor Doom seemed to be gathered at the back of the building."

Felix and Jackie followed her lead, sticking to the walls as much as possible in case a stray A.I.M agent happened to pass by.

"Are you ready?" Avery mouthed to them when they were nearing the door.

She silently pulled one of her throwing knives from her belt. Felix and Jackie nodded and Avery could see Jackie create daggers made of ice in her hands. With that, they snuck to the side of the door and peeked inside. From where they were she could see Doom and M.O.D.O.K standing on either side of the table whispering to each other. Avery could also hear snippets of words like "Avengers", "kill", "torture", and "bait". It sounded like they were arguing about the fate of the Avengers. Well, it looked like they were going to be sorely disappointed because they were doing none of those things, not on her watch, Avery thought to herself.

While inside the building it was easy for Avery to pick up electromagnetic signals. She automatically recognized those that lead to alarms and other kinds of traps, as well as the cell Romanoff and Barton were stuck in, and disarmed them. Unluckily for her that caused the electric blue lines on her face to glow which attracted the attention of the very people she was trying to sneak up on.

"Who are they and how did they get in here?" Victor Von Doom shouted at M.O.D.O.K when he burst out of the room.

"Voltage and Frost you take Doom. I have M.O.D.O.K," Avery said into the comms, not bothering to lower her voice anymore.

She could hear fighting coming through the comms and knew that Mason must have been distracting them enough because no A.I.M agents showed up so far. Avery immediately threw the knife in her hand directly at M.O.D.O.K's head, cracking the jewel on his forehead, and began mentally hacking into M.O.D.O.K's system. It was somewhat of a struggle at first. The sound of fighting coming through her comms was distracting, but now M.O.D.O.K's connection to his psionic powers was damaged for the moment. Since Avery was human and not just a piece of technology that he could control—despite the fact that her brain was wired like a computer—it was easy to shut him down for awhile. When she had finally defeated M.O.D.O.K, at least for the time being, Avery looked around to see how the rest of her friends were faring.

"You do not have the power that I do, _boy_ ," Doom spat at Felix as sparks of lightning shot back and forth between them.

"No, unlike you I was actually born with mine and I know exactly how to use them," Felix countered before absorbing the electricity that Doom used to attack him.

While Felix was taking the electricity coming from Doctor Doom, Jackie was working on freezing Doom in place and attacking him with sharp icicle shards that could cut like a knife. Finally after gathering enough energy Felix slammed his hands together, creating a shock wave, throwing Doom off his feet. He hit the ground hard and before he could get up again Jackie knocked him out and froze him to the ground.

As her friends were fighting Doom, some A.I.M agents had finally arrived and Avery was cutting them down, one after another.

"How's it hanging, Captain?" They all heard Felix say through the comms and while Felix chuckled at his own joke Avery, Mason, Stella and Jackie groaned in unison.

Avery looked over and, yeah, Felix was gone but Jackie was still there taking agents down with her icicle daggers and some of the moves that Avery taught her. Avery immediately noticed Rogers approaching even as she was busy fighting the A.I.M agents surrounding her and saw him take out his shield. Felix must've succeeded in deactivating the magnet. It seemed like the A.I.M agents didn't know that their bosses had been defeated but that wasn't her issue Avery thought as she jumped into the fray again with Rogers fighting by her side.

"Cipher what's going on? Where is Shield backup?" Rogers asked after knocking an A.I.M agent ten feet and seven inches back with his shield.

"Shield isn't here. Instead you have us and right now your friends might be in danger, so shouldn't we be helping them out?" Jackie interjected.

"She's right. We need to get going now," Avery said while motioning for them to follow her. She already had memorized where Barton and Romanoff were being held, and headed in that direction.

Rogers looked at Avery with amusement and his eyebrows raised, in response to her order, but followed her all the same causing Jackie to smile.

"Frost, I need some backup. I'm having some trouble finding the weapon but I have an idea," they heard Mason say through the comms after Jackie, Rogers, and Avery reached the second floor.

"Copy that. I'm on my way Pathos," Jackie said, throwing the last of her icicle daggers before running in the opposite direction.

"To reach Romanoff and Barton we take a left, a right, then another left, and around a corner. That's where they were last."

When they entered the room Romanoff and Barton were being held hostage in, they saw Killian restrained and knocked out in the corner. After scanning the room Avery noticed that the prison was now empty. Stella was healing Romanoff's wounds while Barton stood in front of them defending them from the A.I.M agents. She could see piles of A.I.M agents surrounding Stella on all sides. Avery ran over to Stella when she saw that her friend's whole body was shaking, and when Romanoff's arm was fully healed, lifted her friend out of the hole she had created. Avery pulled Stella close letting her friend lean against her.

* * *

Once, when Stella was bandaging Avery up, Stella had begun talking about her younger brother, Nova, and how he'd gotten shot and killed, bleeding to death in her arms. Stella didn't know about her powers then and by the time they started to manifest it was too late to save him. Her dad was slowly dying at that time from an incurable illness and it had been her responsibility to take care of her little brother. Stella also told Avery that the shot had been due to a gang war. After that Stella had lost it and vowed to stop the war once and for all, and to get back at those who caused her brother to be taken from her. Too many people were dying because of it.

So she'd trained at fighting and shooting, and as her skill grew she began torturing gang members for information on the bosses. Stella was a doctor at the time and she broke the sacred vow all doctors made, to do no harm. Her skill as a doctor made it easier for her to cause the most pain without seriously wounding the people she tortured. And, well, if they got too close to death she would just heal them and begin again. It took her a year and a half before she finally found the mob bosses that were warring against each other.

Just as she was about to kill them for what happened to her younger brother, her mother she'd lost before him, and the friends she cared about, Stella was stopped by Professor Xavier. He talked her out of it and brought her back to the institute. Finally she started healing again like she used to all those years before.

Avery had been shocked when Stella told her the story—it was before they had become close—but she could tell that the woman needed to let it out and Avery had been there at the time. The whole time she'd listened breathless, not daring to make a sound in case Stella stopped talking. Stella hadn't touched a gun since. At least not until Avery made her because Stella had to come and rescue them. Now, once again because she'd agreed to help Avery rescue the Avengers. It was Avery's fault that her friend was hurting people again when she had sworn to stop a long time ago and it was her fault that Stella was shaking so hard from it that she could barely stand.

* * *

"So you came for us. Who else is there?" Barton asked, notching his bow again to take down another A.I.M agent while Rogers pulled out his shield and Romanoff shot at the agents. Slowly but surely their numbers were starting to dwindle.

"Voltage, Doc, Frost, and Pathos," Avery answered, sticking with their code names. She wasn't exactly sure if she was comfortable telling the Avengers her best friend's real names either.

"And who the hell are they?"

"The people who just saved your ass," Stella snapped and Avery could tell she was starting to get her bearings back.

"Go check on Jackie and Mason, alright? We got it covered here," Avery said. She wanted to get Stella out of the line of fire. Her friend wasn't in any condition to continue fighting.

Stella listened and exited the room. When Avery brought her attention back to the fight she could tell that it was pretty much over as most of the A.I.M agents had been taken out. She breathed a sigh of relief. But while her back was turned one of the agents got one more shot in that pierced Avery in her shoulder. Avery was normally overly aware of her surroundings but she was too worried about Stella to pay attention to what was going on around her. The wound wouldn't stop bleeding and before Avery could create a makeshift bandage Barton had ripped off a strip of cloth on the bottom of his shirt and wrapped it around Avery's shoulder where the bullet wound was.

"Thanks for the back up," he said while tying the knot tight so it would staunch the bleeding.

"It's my fault this happened in the first place," Avery replied. She quickly looked away, feeling shame overwhelm her.

"Don't beat yourself up too much over it," he said, finally stepping away.

They all exited the room, the battle finally over, and Avery lead them into the room where the weapon was hidden. It was the room to the left and when they entered the room Avery saw Mason, Stella, Jackie, and Felix standing next to the open safe examining a clear block of ice, the shape of a gun, that was in Jackie's hands.

"Would you stop getting hurt! I take my eyes off of you for five minutes and look what happens," Stella said with a frustrated look as soon as Avery walked through the door.

Stella immediately walked over to Avery and gently unwrapped the make-do bandage before wiping off the dried blood as best as she could. Then she laid both hands on Avery's shoulder causing Avery to wince. Avery gritted her teeth as Stella healed her, doing her best not to make a sound at the feeling of her muscles and skin knitting back together. Thankfully the bullet went right through and wasn't stuck in her shoulder. That would've made it even harder for Stella.

Now she had two bullet scars, one from the first mission she had ever been on and one from this. Fury had freaked when he saw she had gotten shot but Avery knew he wasn't angry at her and she had to stop him from killing whoever had shot her the first time. After that she was usually good at not getting injured too bad. Stella was always there to heal her when she did so Avery didn't end up with scars but this time Stella must've not had enough energy especially after healing Romanoff too. She couldn't even take away Avery's pain. Avery wouldn't have wanted her to in the first place. She hated seeing Stella in pain. Avery was used to being in pain but it still hurt. When it was healed Avery could finally pay attention to her friends.

"Are all of you okay?"

"We're fine," Mason answered.

Still Avery anxiously looked over her friend's bodies, searching for anything worse than a flesh wound.

"Can I assume that's the weapon?" Avery asked once she made sure that they were really unharmed.

"Yeah this was the weapon that they were developing," Jackie said. She then held up the block of ice in her hand. "Somehow they made it invisible to the naked eye. We thought that was the case when we opened the vault to find nothing there so Mason had me freeze the inside. Luckily he was correct in his assumption that if I froze the inside of the vault I would end up freezing the weapon which would make it semi visible to us. Although M.O.D.O.K, Doom, and Killian probably came up with something to counteract the effect in a way so only they could see it," Jackie continued.

"Nice job! That was a brilliant idea you two," Avery said. She looked at her friends proudly, her eyes shining.

After the room quieted down Romanoff's expression turned into a heated glare that she locked on Avery.

"What the hell are they doing here especially after your screw up," she demanded, looking at each of them in turn.

Avery could tell Mason was getting extremely agitated from the heightened emotions in the room and was having trouble keeping control over his own. Due to his powers, not only could he manipulate others moods but other people's moods could end up affecting his if he wasn't careful. Unlike most people, the emotions in a room could immediately make him feel that exact way, only multiplied by ten.

Mason spoke up, after noticing that Avery looked down guiltily. "Avery told us about the situation and asked for our help which it looks like you needed," he snapped, fists clenched by his sides. Normally he was good at controlling his emotions but a lot happened today and it was understandable why his control wasn't as good. "She might have messed up, but she made up for it," Mason added, glaring at the Avengers as if daring them to contradict him. At that, Romanoff raised her eyebrows, surprised at his audacity to talk to her like that, an infamous assassin, at least previously.

Avery smiled gratefully at Mason's comment and stepped forward, looking Romanoff in the eye. "Yeah I made a mistake but me and my friends incapacitated M.O.D.O.K, Killian, and Doom, freed all of you, all while finding the weapon we were originally supposed to investigate. So, I think we're done here," Avery said having gained confidence from what Mason told Romanoff. Then she walked out of the room, her best friends following beside her.

When they finally reached the quinjet Romanoff returned to the pilot's seat and the rest of them filed in behind her, but Rogers stopped her before Avery could enter the quinjet.

"Avery wait! I just want to talk to you," Rogers said. "Look, everyone makes mistakes but heroes make up for their mistakes and try to do better in the future. That's what makes a hero and you Avery have potential to become a true superhero," he continued. He looked down at her with a serious expression.

"Did I just get one of the famous Captain America speeches?" Avery asked. She nudged him playfully hoping that he didn't notice how much what he just said meant to her. There was that word again—hero.

"Yes, yes you did," Rogers replied and they both laughed. Then they climbed into the quinjet and took their seats before Romanoff flew into the air back to Shield Headquarters.

Once they finally reached headquarters Jackie handed over the weapon to Rogers and Avery got a hug from Jackie, Mason, Stella, and Felix before her friends left to go back to the institute. The rest of the Avengers, other than Romanoff, entered the building, probably going report to Nick, leaving Romanoff and Avery alone. She thought that as soon as they were out of earshot Romanoff was going to berate Avery for what she did, but surprisingly she did the opposite.

"Nice job today," Romanoff said and Avery saw something new in her eyes. Although Romanoff might not have liked Avery she was now looking at her with something other than distrust—it was respect.

"Wait," Avery said as Romanoff left to enter the building, "Will you teach me that thigh move?"

"We'll see," Romanoff said and smiled at Avery for the first time.


	6. A Very Merry Avengers Christmas

Avery was sitting at a red and green circular table against the wall, wearing her best—and only—Christmas sweater while all the Shield agents crowded around the Avengers. Nick thought it would be funny if Avery wore a sweater with a Christmas tree made of blue circuits that glowed. She got him an eyepatch with small blue blinking Christmas lights around the edge as payback. He actually wore it too, looking at her with exasperation and fondness as he slipped it on before the party started. Other than that he was wearing his usual black attire along with his dramatic black trench coat.

Somehow Tony had convinced Nick to let him throw a giant Christmas party in what was usually the Shield cafeteria. Avery could see from all the different Christmas sweaters that Shield agents got really excited for Christmas. Not only did Nick and Phil attend the party but the rest of the Avengers came too, wearing their own "Christmas" sweaters. To make it even more ridiculous they were wearing each other's symbols.

Tony was wearing a blue sweater with Rogers's shield while Rogers wore a red one with the arc reactor on it. Romanoff was wearing a purple sweater with a target on it and Barton wore a black sweater with the red symbol of the black widow. Since the Thunderer had managed to make it back for Christmas he wore a green sweater with the words hulk smash on it and to top it off Banner was wearing a yellow sweater with Thor's hammer on it. All of their sweaters had Santa hats over the symbols and were blinking too.

Right now they were being surrounded by excited agents who were acting like they had never met the Avengers before. Avery heard that Phil had turned into a complete fanboy when he first met Rogers. She would have loved to see that. But unlike them, Avery was sitting alone sipping what she had figured out was spiked eggnog. She had grown a tolerance to alcohol though so she wasn't too worried.

Avery didn't even know why she'd come seeing as she knew none of the agents were going to talk to her and Fury had left fifteen minutes and forty-nine seconds after the party had started. Phil was the one hosting the best Christmas sweater contest so he had to stay, but he was surrounded by agents too. Avery wished she could have invited her friends, it would have made her feel less alone, but the party was for Shield agents only. Although they had managed to exchange presents earlier.

Avery got Mason a hardback composer's notebook that he could carry around with him and jot down songs when something came to mind. He played piano and was always working on composing new songs. Avery got Felix a lightbulb as a gag gift so that whenever he had an idea he could pull it out and it would light up but she also got him the best hair care products she could find for his shoulder-length curly hair which he was very particular about. Avery got Jackie a pair of 5-inch kickass heels from some fancy shoe store that she didn't bother remembering the name of. She didn't know how Jackie could walk in them without breaking an ankle and that made her even more terrifying in Avery's eyes. Finally, Avery got Stella a telescope, the same one that Stella's parents used to have. It took her awhile to track it down but it was worth it. Stella's parents were astronomers and Avery knew that when Stella was young she wanted to follow in her parent's footsteps. Even though she eventually went on to be a doctor Avery knew that Stella still loved the stars which her and her younger brother were named after.

Felix bought her a couple of books from a fantasy series Avery had never heard of before and she couldn't wait to start reading them. Jackie got her a new leather jacket because her first one was getting old and Stella got her new knives that that were gorgeous, had perfect balance, a nice grip, and never dulled. Although Stella hated the idea of Avery fighting, Stella said that if she was going to fight at least she would have some of the best weapons while doing it. She loved all of the gifts that her friends gave her, but Mason's was particularly close to her heart. He had been working on composing something for awhile but wouldn't tell any of them what it was, not even Avery. It turned out that the secret thing he was composing was the french lullaby Avery's dad sang her when she was a baby. Before she left for the Christmas party he played it to her and Avery couldn't stop herself from crying. It was one of the few things she remembered about her parents and the fact that he composed the song so that he could play it for her meant the world to Avery.

When Avery looked up from her drink she thought she saw a glimpse of long black wavy hair and bright green eyes, causing her to almost choke. It couldn't be...there is no way it could be her. But before Avery could get up and find the unknown woman that looked too familiar to be real Tony had appeared out of nowhere causing her to jump. She was normally always aware of her surroundings and Avery couldn't believe that Tony sudden presence had frightened her, but she had been captivated by the woman. She quickly looked back to where the mysterious woman had been but she was gone. Avery must've just imagined the whole thing although she didn't know why she would imagine someone she hadn't thought about for years.

* * *

"Hey what do you think of the party? Oh, I don't know what is in this eggnog but I love it!" Tony said with a large grin and flushed cheeks.

He had obviously been drinking the spiked eggnog, and way too much of it if you asked Avery, although he probably didn't even realize it was spiked.

"Yeah, it's great but maybe you should put it down," Avery said with a forced smile as she took the glass out of Tony's hand and set it on the table, putting hers down as well. "I'm enjoying the party although I don't know how you actually managed to convince Nick and Phil to let you throw it," she continued. But then again if anyone could defy the impossible it would be Tony Stark.

"You don't look like you're having fun," Tony said, pouting while giving her a suspicious look.

"I'm just not a party person. So why the party?"

"Everyone needs a break around Christmas time, plus it's been a pretty crazy week for me."

"It's been a pretty crazy week for me too. Everything looks wonderful though. Pepper did a great job," Avery said with a mischievous smile, causing Tony to laugh.

"Well, you're right about that."

"So? How on earth did you manage to talk Phil and Nick into letting you throw it."

"I promised Agent an upgrade on Lola and Fury that I would bother him less next year."

It was Avery who cracked up this time. Avery knew how much Phil loved Lola, his flying car, and how short Nick's patience level was.

"Well anyways," Tony continued, "I heard you did really good the other day from Nat, Steve, and Clint. Fury mentioned it too. Y'know he tends to gush about you a lot when he's not paying too much attention."

"That's hard to believe seeing as I royally screwed up. And he only does that because he is the one that trained me," Avery said playfully, lowering her voice at the last part.

Another Christmas song started playing in the background. It took Avery a long time to start enjoying Christmas songs again as they used to remind her of spending the holidays with a family she didn't have. But now she had a family, and they were Nick, Phil, Mason, Stella, Jackie, and Felix.

Avery thought back to earlier that morning and the conversation she had with Nick and Phil.

* * *

"You did good, kid," Nick said when Avery walked into his office that morning.

Phil, who was standing behind him nodded.

"Thanks, Dad...why are you two staring at me?" Avery asked, looking at them in confusion.

"You just called Nick 'dad'. You said 'Thanks, dad.'" Phil spoke up, smirking.

"What? No, I didn't. I said 'Thanks, man.'" Avery replied hurriedly.

"Do you see me as a father figure, Avery?" Fury asked with an amused but rather affectionate expression.

"No! If anything, I see you as a bother figure, because you're always bothering me!" Avery snapped half-heartedly, unable to hide the fondness in her voice.

"Hey! Show your father some respect!" Phil said and snickered under his breath in a surprising show of emotion.

"Whatever you say uncle Phil," Avalon replied with a sly grin, causing him to suddenly freeze and Phil's laughter to cease. Looking horrified, Phil shut his mouth with a snap. Nick made no effort to hide his smirk.

"Wait, you two watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine?" Avery asked excitedly when she realized that she had unknowingly been quoting a scene from the show and that Nick and Phil had followed along.

"No!" Nick and Phil exclaimed with nervous expressions on their faces.

But before the topic could be continued someone interrupted them.

"Director we have a serious problem! Stark is insisting on throwing a Christmas party," a random agent said after barging into Nick's office.

Fury and Phil shared a look of exasperation.

"Dammit Stark," Nick muttered under his breath.

* * *

"So that's a nice sweater," Tony said snapping Avery out of her reverie.

Avery laughed. "You should tell that to Nick, he's the one that got it for me."

"I saw him earlier and his eyepatch had blinking Christmas lights on it. I guess I can assume that was your doing?" Tony asked, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm somewhat surprised that he wore it."

"Well you just made my Christmas," Tony said with a chuckle as he sat down in the seat next to her.

"Well seeing you and the other Avengers wearing each other's symbols made mine," Avery said, laughing along with Tony. But her laughter suddenly stopped when she saw the Avengers heading toward them.

"You don't mind if they sit with us too, do you?"

But Avery didn't have a chance to answer as they had already arrived at the table. Avery got nervous about being around so many people at once when she didn't know them well.

"Hey, guys! This is Avery. Avery, these are the rest of the Avengers and my friends."

"More like family," Rogers added and nudged Tony playfully while looking down at him with a smile.

"Verily!" Odinson said, his voice booming and the rest of the Avengers nodded together.

"Yes well, you know Steve, Nat, and Clint. And although you probably heard of them already, this is Thor the god of thunder and Bruce my science bro," Tony continued, nodding to them in turn. His smile had widened into a grin at the mention of family.

"As Tony told you my name is Avery. It's a pleasure to meet you," Avery said smiling awkwardly. She always spoke more formally when she felt uncomfortable.

"It is an honor to meet the famous Cipher," Thor said, and Avery wondered if his voice even had a lower volume.

"You have heard of me?" Avery said, not letting her shock show.

"Tony told us all about you, and of course Fury went on and on about you as well," Banner answered with a friendly smile.

"Only good things I hope." Avery turned and raised her eyebrow at Tony, giving him her most threatening look.

"Hey, of course, they were," Tony said raising his arms in the air defensively.

This caused all of them to laugh and even got a smile out of Natasha.

"Shield-brother Steven and Clinton, and Shield Sister Natasha told me all about your glorious battle yesterday. I'm sorry to have missed it!" Thor said with a giant grin that looked like it should be hurting his jaw. "I would love to hear the tale of how you defeated your foes!"

"You can interrogate her later about it big guy, but it's Christmas and we should talk about, well, non-gruesome things," Tony cut in and Avery mouthed "thank you".

"Of course Shield-brother Anthony."

"She was a complete badass with a knife though," Clint spoke up, grinning and nudged her playfully.

Then the rest of the Avengers sat down at the table as well, exchanging conversation and always trying to include Avery. But Avery mainly just listened and observed quietly. She could tell they were all very close by the way the six of them maintained casual physical contact the whole time. A nudge here, a friendly push there, and sometimes just resting their arms against each other's. They really were a family.

"It's time for the best Christmas sweater contest!" Phil said, interrupting the conversation, as the microphone made his voice fill the room. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else and it made Avery want to laugh. "You all have voted by ballot and now the final winner is…Nikki Gold"

It ended up being some random agent that Avery didn't know so she must've been new. Avery automatically downloaded everyone she met into her memory. The girl was beautiful though and Avery couldn't look away, only doing so when the girl walked by her on her way back and gave Avery a wink which caused her cheeks to heat up. They were privacy bright red. All the Avengers snickered when the girl was out of earshot and she felt someone pat her on the back.

"Next it is time for exchanging of presents. So if you got a present for another agent now would be the time to give it to them," Phil said once the pretty female agent had gotten her trophy for best Christmas sweater and some random prizes.

It was the most cliché Christmas party Avery had ever been to, but then again it was the only real Christmas party she had ever been to.

"Here is your present," Tony said holding out a wrapped box. "Pepper helped me with the wrapping."

"But I didn't—"

"Don't worry about it. Consider it a welcome gift to working with the Avengers," Tony said.

"And having to deal with our asses," Clint added causing Steve and Tony to laugh.

"Trust me you should take it. Tony is just like this. He offered me a home after the first day we met and fought together," Bruce spoke up, turning to grin at Tony and nudge him playfully.

So Avery opened the gift and found a gorgeous laptop.

"That's a Stark laptop. First of it's kind," Tony said casually as if this wasn't one of the best gifts Avery had ever gotten and was extremely meaningful.

"Thank you so much, Tony!" Avery pulled Tony into a tight hug and laughed at his surprised squeak. But eventually, she pulled away.

"You're very welcome," Tony replied, smiling at her fondly.

"Well I'll definitely have to check this out later," Avery said excitedly.

Then suddenly a shot rang through the air and there was a hole in her shiny new laptop. She was about to kill someone.

Immediately everyone went into fight stances. Thor pulled out his hammer while Steve took up his Shield that came from who knows where. Tony's watch began to turn into a gauntlet and Avery pulled out her custom-made knives that Stella bought her. The rest of the Shield agents pulled out their guns simultaneously.

Whoever it was must've been an idiot to attack Shield with all these agents in one area. How did they know where to go anyways? Then it immediately dawned on Avery that a large group of Shield agents in an enclosed space was exactly what they wanted.

* * *

"Look we need to eradicate those abominations once and for all and I know you all can help me do it," the strange man called Tristan, who approached Butch and his friends a week ago said.

They all cheered. They had been cautious at first but after they had been thrown out of Shield, all because of that freak, they finally agreed to join the man on his quest to get rid of mutants. Butch knew it was the right thing to do.

"I can tell that you are the best of the best and if you tell me about how to get into Shield we can eliminate that girl and that's only the beginning."

Butch had no idea how the man knew about Shield but in the end it didn't matter. Shield was already corrupted all because of that thing. Butch's sister had been killed by one years ago and ever since he had ached for revenge. It was the same for others in his group too.

"Now the plan is to attack when they aren't expecting and since Christmas is coming up I think that would be the best day. I want you to take out as many Shield agents as possible, but make sure you take out the one you call the Cipher."

"But they're fellow Shield agents," Butch said nervously.

"They are just casualties when it comes to the war against mutants and if they accept those abominations they deserve to go too."

The shield agents nodded along reluctantly.

"Now I want you all to prepare for the ambush you only have two days until Christmas."

* * *

Avery spun out of the way as another bullet came flying at her, but she didn't need to. Tony had intercepted it with the gauntlet. When she looked closer, Avery could see that some of the shooters were actually the ex Shield agents that Nick threw out. But others she didn't recognize. There was fighting going on on the other side of the room too and Avery could tell that several agents had already fallen and might've even been dead.

It was hard to dodge bullets when the room was so filled with people. As Avery entered the fight she easily took some of them down with her knife, stabbing especially hard at the Shield agents who attacked her. It ended as quickly as it started and when it was all over Avery saw too many Shield agents on the floor, but thankfully the invaders were all taken out; some kept as hostages to interrogate later.

It was amazing to see the Black Widow in action. Even though Avery fought with her the other day she didn't get to look closely at her moves. And to see Thor use the Mjölnir was a magnificent sight. Thankfully Bruce didn't hulk out though or else there would have been a lot more damage and many more injured on both sides. Steve also used his shield and Avery wondered how exactly it worked scientifically. Tony didn't get to use his gauntlet too much because it was in an enclosed space but he didn't really need it and was exactly as good a fighter as Avery had suspected. She had studied all of them thoroughly, of course.

* * *

"This is the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted," Bruce said an hour later after everything had been cleaned up and the hostages were taken away.

"It's like an orgasm in my mouth," Clint added and they all laughed into their hot chocolate. "It's even got the mini marshmallows!"

Thankfully the kitchen wasn't ruined and so Avery made them her famous hot chocolate.

"Yeah it's almost as good as my Ma's, and hers was legendary."

"If you added caffeine to this I would never need to drink coffee ever again."

The rest of the Avengers murmured in agreement. They were sitting at one of the very few tables that had not been destroyed in the fight.

"Not bad," Natasha said taking another sip of hot chocolate.

All the guys looked at her incredulously and Natasha winked at Avery.

"This hot chocolate is a drink for the gods!" Thor said, motioning to slam the mug on the ground until Steve stopped his hand.

"For the love of God Thor, we talked about this."

"Yes I know you are also a god," Steve added quickly as Thor went to open his mouth.

"A nun at the orphanage I grew up in, Sister Dezarai, taught me how to make it. It was her homemade recipe. Sister Dezarai always made it for me after I had a nightmare and eventually she taught me how to make it myself." Avery told them looking off into the distance feeling as if she was suddenly there again. Then she cleared her throat awkwardly just realizing how personal the thing she told them was but they all had understanding looks on their faces.

"Well, I thank her," Tony said raising his glass.

"So we were talking about it and we all agree that we would like you to go on more missions with us," Steve spoke up, causing the chatter to die down.

"You're serious? Even after the last one?"

"Especially after the last one," Clint chimed in and Natasha nodded with a smirk.

"I heard you are a very fierce warrior and I would be honored to fight alongside side you," Thor said, for once not shouting.

"You showed that you can perform a rescue mission under stressful circumstances especially after you messed up and that's important," Natasha added.

"So what do you say?" Tony asked.

"I say yes. Although I have some other commitments that come first."

"Yes, we know. Fury told us about the mutant team. It would be nice to have another team around. Don't worry he only told us. No one else knows," Steve said.

The conversation finally lost its serious tone and they just broke into a casual conversation which Avery actually participated in this time.

Even after the violent interruption to the Shield Christmas party and the slow start, Avery would have to say she had a fun and exciting Christmas.


End file.
